Israeli troops and tanks have massed at the Gaza border amid continuing speculation that a ground offensive is being prepared.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza, said Israeli aircraft attacked the territory's interior ministry this morning.

Since the Israeli attacks began on Saturday, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed, and hundreds more wounded.
The European Union has described Israel's continuing air strikes on Gaza as 'unacceptable' and called on both sides to halt military actions.

As Israeli tanks massed on the Gaza border overnight, the army declared the area a closed military zone; a move that in the past has been followed by ground operations in the Palestinian enclave.

Amid mounting international calls for a halt to the violence, Israel allowed the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza - where most of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid.

Hamas militants have responded to the air strikes with renewed rocket attacks on Israel.

An Israeli Arab was killed and eight other people were wounded when one of the projectiles slammed into a construction site in the southern city of Ashkelon, 13km north of Gaza.

The Israeli blitz, unleashed on Saturday in retaliation for ongoing rocket and mortar fire from Gaza, has killed at least 312 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,400 others, according to Gaza medics.

Among the dead are at least 51 confirmed civilian deaths, according to the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

Four girls from the same family, aged from one to 12 years old, died in fresh raids overnight. They died in an air raid in the northern town of Jabaliya that targeted a mosque near their home. Two boys were later killed in a strike on the southern city of Rafah.

China and Japan joined the growing international chorus for a halt to the violence, which has also included Britain, France and Russia. Protests took place in many European capitals at the weekend.

Hamas has lashed out at the world for not doing enough to end the blitz.

Israel is 'committing a holocaust as the whole world watches and doesn't lift a finger to stop it,' Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.

Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on Saturday, Gaza militants have fired more than 100 rockets and mortars into the Jewish state, killing two people and wounding nearly two dozen more.

Some of the rockets landed some 30km inside Israel, the farthest yet.

Amid vows by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak to expand the air blitz and to send in ground troops if necessary, the Israeli cabinet yesterday gave the green light to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has again issued a strong condemnation of the Israeli air-strikes.

The chairwoman of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Marie Crawley, welcomed Mr Martin's condemnation, but called on the Government to provide funds for emergency medical supplies.

Meanwhile Derek Graham, a Co Mayo man who is a director of the Free Gaza Movement, is among a group of activists on a boat that is attempting to take three tons of emergency medical supplies into Gaza today.

RTE