Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza's main city, as warplanes carried out at least 50 air strikes on the 16th day of a war launched to combat Palestinian rocket fire, which has continued despite the offensive.

The Gaza Strip - the past 24 hours GAZA CITY - A SUMMARY of the main events on the ground and on the diplomatic front over the past 24 hours in Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip: MILITARY - Israel indicates for the first time an end is in sight to its war on Hamas. - Israeli warplanes bomb about 60 targets throughout Gaza overnight into Sunday, while Palestinian militants fire at least 19 rockets into the Jewish state. - Six Palestinian civilians, including four children, are killed in Israeli bombing of northern Gaza, while 12 bodies are found buried in Gaza City. - Dozens of Palestinians flee their homes in a neighbourhood of Gaza City as Israeli ground troops advance deeper into the capital of the battered territory. - The military says it has killed senior Hamas rocket launcher Amir Mansi, who was responsible for many of the long-range rockets fired in recent days. - Three Egyptian policemen and two children are wounded by shrapnel during Israeli air strikes apparently targeting smuggling tunnels near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. - Israel says it has destroyed 20 tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border on Sunday alone. - An Israeli air raid destroys a clinic in Gaza but no one was hurt as the building was evacuated in time, Swedish charities that help finance it said. - Channel Two television reports Israel has begun sending reservists into Gaza alongside the regular army. DIPLOMACY ... more

Civilians again fell victim in Israel's offensive on the impoverished and isolated Palestinian enclave, one of the world's most densely populated places where half of the 1.5 million residents are less than 18 years old.

Two women and four children were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, medics and witnesses said.

Israeli officials suggested the end may be close of its offensive, which has killed hundreds of civilians, despite having last week waved off a UN resolution calling for an immediate halt to the fighting.

'The decision of the (UN) security council doesn't give us much leeway,' Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio.

'Thus it would seem that we are close to ending the ground operation and ending the operation altogether.'

Earlier Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state was nearing the goals it had set for its operation, but said fighting would continue for now.

'Israel is approaching these goals, but more patience and determination are required,' Mr Olmert said at a cabinet meeting.

He told ministers that Israel 'dealt Hamas an unprecedented blow,' government secretary Oved Yehezkel quoted Olmert as saying. 'It will never be the same Hamas.' Israeli forces have demolished some 200 smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border - Hamas's main resupply route - representing 66 per cent of the total, according to military spokeswoman Avital Leibowich.

The army said it had blown up 20 tunnels on Sunday alone, and an Egyptian security official said shrapnel from one of the strikes wounded two Egyptian police officers and two children at the Rafah crossing into Gaza.

Hamas, however, has vowed to keep fighting, and on Sunday 19 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, including four long-range Grad rockets, without wounding anyone.

Both Israel and Hamas last week brushed off the UN Security Council resolution that called on both sides to stop fighting.

Early on Sunday troops crept into the narrow streets of the southern Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City, encountering roadside bombs, mortar and gunfire from Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

The troops withdrew at daybreak, but hundreds of panicked residents fled the area, clutching small children and hastily packed bags after a sleepless night.

'We couldn't take anything with us, not even milk for the children,' said Ibtisam Shamallah, 22, as she fled with her two children.

Twelve bodies were later pulled from the rubble in Tal Al-Hawa, including 10 fighters, according to medics. In all, at least 26 Palestinians were killed in clashes on Sunday, they said.

But the exiled political chief of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, remained defiant in an address televised late on Saturday, vowing that his group would not discuss any kind of ceasefire until the Israeli offensive stopped.

'As long as there is an occupation there is a resistance,' he said.

Egypt has spearheaded Western-backed efforts to end the fighting, calling for an immediate truce, opening Gaza's border crossings, preventing arms smuggling and relaunching Palestinian reconciliation efforts.

On Sunday Cairo ramped up pressure on Israel by summoning its ambassador to demand that the Jewish state comply with the UN Security Council's call for a ceasefire and opening 'humanitarian corridors' in the besieged territory.

Since the Israeli onslaught began on December 27, at least 890 people have been killed, including 275 children, and another 3,800 wounded, according to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket attacks since the operation began, as Palestinian militants have fired more than 600 rockets, some of them penetrating deeper than ever inside Israel.

The conflict has sparked worldwide pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and US President-elect Barack Obama said he is assembling a team of diplomats to start addressing the Middle East conflict once he is sworn in on January 20. -- AFP