text: Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Families are on the run in Gaza, reports Lyse Doucet; Quentin Sommerville in Israel says its tanks are on the move 
   
   The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, stepping up its 11-day-old military operation. 
   
   Troops and tanks were sent into Gaza to deal "a significant blow to Hamas", Israel said. 
   
   A Hamas spokesman said Israel would "pay a high price" for its actions. 
   
   Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the invasion after days of intensive rocket fire and air strikes between the two sides. 
   
   Gaza's health ministry said 24 Palestinians had been killed and 200 injured since the ground offensive began on Thursday night. 
   
   A five-month-old child was among the dead, Palestinian medics told AFP news agency. Israel said it had killed 14 "terrorists" overnight. 
   
   Israel meanwhile suffered its first military fatality, with the death of a soldier during the invasion, it said. 
   
   Some 258 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, officials in Gaza say. 
   
   An Israeli civilian was killed from mortar fire, and several Israelis have been seriously injured, Israeli medics say. 
   
   'Heavy clashes' 
   
   Announcing the ground offensive, the Israeli military said: "Following 10 days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to de-escalate the situation, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip." 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Lyse Doucet was among the journalists and residents evacuated from an area of Gaza 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Clearly this is a major escalation of this conflict," reports Quentin Sommerville in Tel Aviv 
   
   It said the goal was to "establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure". 
   
   In Gaza City overnight, plumes of black smoke could be seen from the border area where Israeli troops were operating, AP news agency reported. 
   
   At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, Gaza City 
   
   It's hard to get a detailed picture, since the main focus of Israeli activity is some distance from downtown Gaza. But it's clear this is not yet a full-scale ground invasion. 
   
   Areas in the north and south of the Gaza Strip came under heavy bombardment overnight, but ground operations are so far limited. An Israeli military spokesman told us that troops had destroyed tunnels along the border. 
   
   He also confirmed that troops and armour remain just inside a largely unpopulated area in the north. 
   
   The Israeli military is testing the water, gauging the level of opposition before deciding whether or not to move deeper inside the Gaza Strip. The death of one of its own soldiers, at this early stage, will have come as a warning of the dangers ahead. 
   
   But Prime Minister Netanyahu seems determined to inflict greater damage on Hamas and that could mean sending his troops into densely populated areas. This will be dangerous for them, and potentially devastating for any Palestinian civilians in the way. 
   
   Israel said the initial phase was aimed at targeting tunnels Hamas has dug under the border with Israel to use in attacks. 
   
   On Wednesday 13 militants infiltrated into Israel through a tunnel aiming to attack a kibbutz, Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said it killed at least one of the militants, while the others retreated through the tunnel. 
   
   Reuters news agency said Palestinians reported heavy clashes along the length of the eastern border, as well as in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. 
   
   Image copyright AFP Image caption Palestinian militants fire missiles at Israel amid Israeli air strikes 
   
   Military spokesman Gen Moti Almoz warned residents of Gaza to evacuate areas in which the army was operating. "This operation will be extended as much as necessary," he said. 
   
   Israel approved the drafting of 18,000 more reservists on Thursday evening, bringing the total of extra troops called up since 8 July to 65,000. 
   
   Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that the Israeli ground operation was "destined to failure". 
   
   "What the occupier Israel failed to achieve through its air and sea raids, it will not be able to achieve with a ground offensive", he said. 
   
   Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the ground operation would lead to "more bloodshed" and called on Israel to stop. 
   
   Mr Abbas, whose Fatah party recently agreed to a unity government with Hamas, was meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo amid efforts to negotiate a truce. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Are Israeli strike warnings effective? The BBC examines footage from both sides 
   
   The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says it is possible that with the ground invasion Israel is seeking to improve its military position in advance of any deal, but that more probably it has concluded that a ceasefire at the moment in unlikely. 
   
   Israel says it has carried out more than 1,960 attacks on Gaza since 8 July, while militants have fired some 1,380 rockets at Israel. It says more than 50 rockets have been fired at Israel since the ground operation began. 
   
   The UN says at least 1,370 homes have been destroyed in Gaza and more than 18,000 people displaced in recent hostilities. 
   
   The ground offensive follows attempts in Cairo to negotiate a new ceasefire. 
   
   There was a temporary ceasefire on Thursday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and aid workers to distribute water, food and hygiene kits. 
   
   The truce lasted for five hours, although both sides reported violations. ||||| Story highlights IDF: "We have hit Hamas hard, and we will continue to hit Hamas hard" 
   
   Hamas condemns Israel for launching ground action 
   
   Operation follows 10 days of airstrikes and bombings 
   
   Palestinian security sources say airstrikes killed 7 children 
   
   The Israeli military launched a ground operation into Gaza late Thursday and called an extra 18,000 reservists into the conflict with Hamas. 
   
   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ordered the ground action to destroy tunnels from Gaza into Israeli territory, according to a statement from Netanyahu's media adviser. 
   
   Thirteen Hamas militants used a tunnel earlier Thursday to launch an attempted attack in Sufa, near an Israeli kibbutz, but were stopped by Israeli soldiers, the Israel Defense Forces reported 
   
   CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Mark Regev, Netanyahu's spokesman, whether Israel planned to occupy Gaza for a long time. 
   
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   Regev didn't answer directly, but said Israel's goals are to "diminish" the Hamas military force and to show Hamas it cannot attack Israel with impunity. 
   
   "We have hit Hamas hard, and we will continue to hit Hamas hard," the Israel Defense Forces tweeted 
   
   Hamas immediately condemned the Israeli operation. 
   
   Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told CNN that "the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is a dangerous step with unknown consequences. Israel will pay a heavy price for it." 
   
   Later, appearing on Aqsa TV, Barhoum said, "the resistance will confront the Israeli ground invasion and will defend the people of Gaza." 
   
   He said Hamas military forces are "far stronger" than in 2009 and 2012, when Hamas and Israel clashed. 
   
   Militants are prepared to capture Israel soldiers and use them to trade for some of 5,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, Barhoum said. 
   
   CNN's Palestinian security sources said Israeli tanks have reached Abu Holeh and that Israeli troops are clashing with Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters along the Kissufim road. 
   
   Abu Holeh is about in the center of Gaza, said CNN reporter Ben Wedeman. If Israeli forces go from there to the sea they can split Gaza as they did during the 2009 ground operation, Wedeman said. 
   
   Wedeman said Israeli forces struck near a mosque in Gaza City's Zaitoun neighborhood, which has been pounded since start of bombing, with many casualties reported. 
   
   Gaza hospital struck 
   
   Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Israeli bombs hit Wafa Hospital in Gaza while four patients were inside. Seventeen others had evacuated, he said. 
   
   The long-awaited ground operation follows one of the worst nights of fighting since the war began. That fighting began after a temporary cease-fire ended earlier in the day. 
   
   The Gaza Health Ministry said seven children were killed in three hours on Thursday. 
   
   Before the incursion, the IDF dropped leaflets in 14 areas of Gaza, urging residents to temporarily leave their homes. 
   
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   Map of the Middle East 
   
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   CNN reporter Ian Lee described the action: "Periodic fire balls illuminate the sky over Gaza. We see rockets screech toward the sky. Minutes later we see an intercepting missile rise from the iron dome, reducing the rocket into confetti of light and fire. 
   
   "We've seen red tracer rounds fly across the horizon. The repetitive thud of naval guns echoes throughout the coastal strip." 
   
   A 4-year-old girl was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the customs building in Khan Younis, Palestinian medical and security sources said, and another airstrike killed a 29-year-old man east of Khan Younis. 
   
   Aqsa TV reported that an Israeli was killed and another injured in shelling of Ashkelon and that seven Israeli soldiers were injured in an attack on a military location. 
   
   Aqsa TV also reported that Israeli gunboats near Beit Lahiya north of Gaza strip, fired at the homes of residents. 
   
   Palestinian medical and security sources say 246 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 1,850 injured. Israel says one of its citizens has died. 
   
   Cairo talks 
   
   In recent decades, Palestinians launched two armed uprisings against Israel, known as Intifadas, that each went on for years. 
   
   In late 2008 and early 2009, Israel carried out airstrikes and then a ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians. In November 2012, the two sides fought a bloody eight-day conflict that ended in a cease-fire. 
   
   Egypt, which as been trying to broker a cease-fire, said Thursday, "If Hamas had accepted the truce Palestinian lives could have been saved." 
   
   Earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-Arabi held talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a cease-fire agreement. 
   
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   An Israeli delegation also attended, leaving after several hours, the state-run al-Ahram news agency reported. 
   
   "I expect that we will reach an agreement very soon; the efforts of a cease-fire is to stop the bloodshed, killing and destruction in Gaza," said Nabil Shaath, an Abbas adviser and member of the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. 
   
   He said negotiators were focusing on stopping bloodshed above all else. He said they would later discuss Hamas demands, including opening Gaza border crossings and freeing prisoners whose exit from jail was negotiated in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. 
   
   "These are all legitimate demands by Hamas, but the priority is for an immediate cease-fire," Shaath said. 
   
   Hamas leaders had rejected an earlier Egyptian cease-fire proposal, saying they had not been consulted on the deal and complaining that it did not address their broader demands. 
   
   Egypt is playing a large role in the talks despite its distrust of Hamas. 
   
   Like Israel, Egypt considers Hamas a terror organization because of the group's roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt's military-led government banned after the country's 2013 coup. 
   
   Temporary cease-fire 
   
   During Thursday's temporary cease-fire, Gaza banks opened for the first time in 10 days. Residents poured into the streets. 
   
   Red Cross officials visited hospitals and damaged houses to assess medical needs, and worked with local officials to fix water pipelines. Some work was also done to repair power lines, the United Nations said. 
   
   At least 10 to 15 trucks entered Gaza through the Karem Shalom border crossing once it opened at 1 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), according to Ra'ed Fatooh, the Palestinian official in charge of the crossing in Gaza. 
   
   Goods were limited to medical supplies and basic foodstuffs such as rice, sugar, oil, canned food, flour and other basic goods, he said. 
   
   Deaths on Gaza beach 
   
   Fallout continued from the deaths the day before of four cousins ages 9 to 11 who died in an Israeli military strike on a Gaza beach. 
   
   The results of a preliminary investigation suggests the deaths were the result of a "a tragic misidentification of the target," Regev told CNN. 
   
   "We didn't want to kill those four boys. That was not our intention," Regev said. "I'd even say the opposite is true. Had we known that that missile was aimed at four young men like that we would have not sent the missile." 
   
   A Hamas official called the killings a "war crime." 
   
   "Those children were not firing rockets, they were just playing," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zhuri told reporters Wednesday. 
   
   Regev, however, said a legitimate Hamas target was nearby, highlighting what he called a "complex combat environment" in crowded Gaza City and surrounding areas. 
   
   Israeli officials say militants often use mosques, schools and other crowded places to hide rockets and other weapons.
target: – Optimists hoped today's humanitarian cease-fire might lead to a longer peace in Israel and Gaza, but that's not the case by a long shot. In fact, Israel just raised the stakes considerably by launching a ground offensive into Gaza, reports the BBC. A military statement said the goal was “establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror," reports the New York Times. Troops were expected to focus on so-called "terror tunnels" used to infiltrate the country. It's not clear whether the ground offensive will be a quick strike or a longer one with the goal of taking control of Gaza. An Israeli defense official who speculated yesterday about such a move said that a takeover of Gaza wouldn't be too much of a challenge, but that any such mission would have to last "many months" in order to fully secure the area. Today's development comes after 10 days of back-and-forth bombing, notes CNN.