Israeli Forces Storm Gaza City Neighborhood

The operation in Tel Hawwa neighborhood, one mile (1.5 kilometers) southeast of downtown, matched fast-paced forays into other areas designed to avoid Israeli casualties. Residents said troops entered overnight, reconnoitered the area, and then pulled back to more secure positions.

An Israeli reservist poses with his weapons as others stand near Israel's border with Gaza, in...

An Israeli reservist poses with his weapons as others stand near Israel's border with Gaza, in southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009. Israeli warplanes pounded the homes of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and ground troops edged ever closer to the territory's densely-populated urban center Monday but reported casualties were low, an indication that Hamas was largely avoiding pitched battles with the advancing Israelis. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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One Israeli military officer told The Associated Press that Hamas fighters often operate in small groups of up to four and have largely refrained from confronting Israeli troops at close range.

"Their strategy has mainly been to use lots of booby-traps, shooting guns and missiles from afar," the Israeli officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"Soldiers are taking lots of precautions, they are being more careful than the army has ever been before in any war," he said. "Soldiers shoot at anything suspicious, use lots of firepower, and blast holes through walls to move around."

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Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the Israeli military, said Hamas militants also have put on Israeli military uniforms to try to approach troops and carry out suicide bombings.

Ahead of the U.N. chief's arrival, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev wrote him a letter charging that Hamas is "deliberately endangering civilians" in Gaza. She claimed that Hamas operates a command center under Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, and militants "routinely fire from inside the houses of civilians who are held as hostages, prevented by Hamas from leaving."

Hamas, which is backed by Iran, cannot hope to score a battlefield victory over the powerful Israeli military, but mere survival could earn it political capital in the Arab world as a symbol of resistance to the Jewish state. Lebanon's Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, largely achieved that goal in its 2006 war with Israel.

On Tuesday, a Gaza resident said he saw Hamas militants in civilian clothing firing rockets from the southeastern corner of the territory. He spoke by telephone and requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.