JERUSALEM, Sept 30 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Hamas are locked in a deadly battle over his Gaza withdrawal plan, with the premier determined to press ahead and the Palestinian radical group adamant to portray it as a pullout under fire.
Since Tuesday night when Israeli armour rolled en masse into the northern Gaza Strip, the situation on the ground has escalated with the death toll climbing to more than 30, all but five of them Israelis.
Two of the Israelis killed were toddlers who died in a rocket attack on southern Israel.
After Wednesday evening's attack which hit the Israeli town of Sderot, Israel's military brass scaled up the operation in a bid to crush the militants behind the rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
Late Thursday, toward the end of one of the bloodiest days in Gaza since the September 2000 start of the intifada, Sharon approved recommendations by top defence officials for a broadening of the operation, codenamed "Days of Penitence", army radio reported.
Israeli officials have made no secret of the fact that they are more determined than ever to go after Hamas, whether in the Palestinian territories or abroad.
And on Sunday, Sharon made clear he had ordered the army not "to make any compromise" in the all-out war against the Islamic radical group.
Sharon spokesman Avi Pazner warned that the latest offensive would be open-ended. "What you have seen today is going to continue," Pazner told AFP. "We have not put a time-limit on it."
His comments came after Sharon held talks "at the highest level" of Israel's political and military establishment to discuss an adequate response to the escalating rocket attacks.
"Terrorist organisations are doing their utmost to prevent the army withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," Pazner said, adding that "terrorism was soaring" in the Palestinian territory.
Under the terms of Sharon's controversial disengagement plan, Israel intends to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and another four in the northern West Bank by the end of 2005.
"Israel must take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of its citizens" and prevent rocket attacks, said Pazner, as he underscored that the measures were "military and tactical".
Hamas' military wing vowed for its part to "sow death and destruction among enemy troops in every street and backstreet".
"Only over our dead bodies will we allow the enemy troops to advance," the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades armed wing of Hamas said in a statement. "We are able to make them retreat and defeat them."
Hamas has frequently claimed that Israel's decision to withdraw from Gaza Strip was a result of the multiple attacks carried out by the radical group.
Pazner said troops would "go in deeper and in a more comprehensive way in order to see to it that those attacks cease and in order to destabilise the terror organisations".
And defence sources cited by public radio said the operation was aimed at clearing a buffer zone in northern Gaza which would put Israeli territory beyond the range of the makeshift rockets fired by Hamas.
Israel was also likely to set up a larger number of surveillance points in the key flashpoint areas in the territory and make greater use of drones.
Despite the formidable firepower deployed in the territory, Israeli officials appear aware of the limits of a military response in such a densely-populated area where militants can use just the cover of an orchard to be able to fire rockets towards Israel.
But in an interview with public radio, Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra said the Israeli operation was also likely to push the local Palestinian population in Gaza to demand that Hamas put an end to its rocket attacks.