text: Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
   
   Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
   
   Hamas militants intensified their attacks on Israeli forces Saturday, killing two soldiers on Israeli soil and attacking others with antitank missiles, machine guns, even an explosives-laden donkey, apparently undaunted by Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip. 
   
   As the conflict stretched into its 12th day, the militants’ resilience seemed to upend the narrative provided by Israel of a Hamas severely weakened by the Israeli ground offensive, airstrikes, artillery barrages and the ongoing destruction of its tunnel network. 
   
   In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory. 
   
   In all, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began Thursday night. 
   
   Hamas, military analysts said, is much better prepared militarily than in its two previous conflicts with Israel, in 2009 and 2012. Since then, the Islamist group has invested millions in building large quantities of short- and long-range rockets, as well as acquiring other sophisticated weaponry. 
   
   1 of 38 Full Screen Autoplay Close July 18, 2014 July 17, 2014 Thursday Skip Ad × Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza View Photos Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. Caption Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. July 19, 2014 Israeli soldiers patrol near the Israeli-Gaza border. Two Israeli soldiers were killed early Saturday during an attack by Hamas militants, Israel’s military said.The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
   
   At the same time, Hamas’s political and economic situation is in its worst state since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007. It no longer has the support of Iran, Syria or Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia because of its refusal to back President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, is no longer in power. Much of the Arab world, in fact, no longer supports the militants, crippling them financially. 
   
   “They are really stressed. They have to work very hard to achieve meaningful or strategic developments,” said Kobi Michael, former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. 
   
   “They are much more violent and extremist than in previous campaigns,” he added. 
   
   In a second attempt Saturday to enter Israel through their tunnels, Hamas militants were found carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to kidnap soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that the militants were killed. In a third incident, a militant emerged from a concealed tunnel entrance in southern Gaza and began firing at soldiers. 
   
   Saturday’s attempted infiltrations into Israel, coming as thousands of Israeli soldiers focus on dismantling the Hamas tunnel network along Gaza’s border, suggested that the number of tunnels could be far greater than believed. If Hamas continues to use them to kill and injure Israeli soldiers or target civilians in Israel, it could prompt Israel to widen its ground offensive and push deeper into Gaza, swelling civilian casualties. 
   
   The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, including about 60 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 2,200 have been injured. The United Nations estimates that about 80 percent of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. 
   
   More than 60,000 Palestinians are seeking refuge in U.N. shelters. By Saturday, large swaths of the coastal enclave, including Gaza City, had been without electricity for 24 hours. Residents worry about their water supply, since they need electrical power to pump water to their rooftop tanks. 
   
   Israeli tanks dig into Gaza's eastern frontier, as casualty numbers rise on both sides amid fresh fighting. (Reuters) 
   
   Citing its concern about reports of severe shortages of medicines, Israel briefly opened its Erez crossing into Gaza to allow medical supplies in. 
   
   Israeli troops and Gaza militants engaged repeatedly in exchanges of small-arms fire.A midday gun battle near the no-man’s land between the fence and populated areas in central Gaza left several Israeli soldiers injured. An overnight attack by a militant near Beit Lahiya wounded three Israeli soldiers. And in southern Gaza, three more soldiers were injured when an explosive device planted by Hamas militants detonated. 
   
   “The resistance is roughly as we were expecting, maybe a little bit lower,” a senior Israeli military official told reporters Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accord with military protocol. “We expect Hamas to fight.” 
   
   In one incident, militants strapped a donkey with explosives and pushed it in the direction of Israeli soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that soldiers “engaged the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance” without injuring any troops. 
   
   Much of Hamas’s ammunition and weaponry has been smuggled in from Iran or Sudan, through tunnels that stretched from Egypt into Gaza, according to Israeli intelligence officials. So were raw materials used by Hamas engineers to assemble sophisticated homemade rockets and other weapons. There are also reports that Hamas has acquired drones. 
   
   But since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, Egypt’s military has destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels entering Gaza and closed off its border. 
   
   A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer told reporters in a briefing Saturday that Hamas’s fighters were unable to match Israel’s firepower and that Israel was “using its power on the ground to ruin those tunnels.” He said Hamas’s weapons arsenal had been reduced by about half and that the Israeli army “believes that it has caused a lot of damage” to the group. 
   
   Still, as they tangled with Israeli troops on the ground, Hamas and other militant factions continued to fire a steady barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. 
   
   Since Israel’s ground offensive began Thursday night, some 160 rockets have been fired, Israel’s military said, saying the number represented a “limited decline.” 
   
   “Not a big change, but the numbers are smaller than in the past couple of days,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli Army spokesman. 
   
   In southern Israel, though, a Hamas rocket killed a Bedouin man — the second Israeli civilian killed in the conflict — and badly injured an infant girl Saturday, said officials with Magen David Adom, Israel’s first aid agency. Twenty-nine people were slightly injured in the attack. 
   
   Sirens rang over communities in southern Israel all day. 
   
   During the ground offensive, Israeli troops have attacked more than 300 Hamas targets, including 112 command centers and 95 rocket launchers, the military said, and have found 13 tunnels from Gaza into Israel, with 31 openings. 
   
   In Gaza, evacuees watched from the top floor of an elementary school northeast of Khan Younis, one of the enclave’s hardest-hit areas, as round after round of Israeli tank and artillery shells fell a mile or two away. 
   
   Ten men gathered in front of a grocery store were killed before dawn when an Israeli missile struck the pavement. Small BB-size pieces of shrapnel flew from the explosion and flecked the walls with pinpoint holes. 
   
   The men’s funerals were sponsored by Hamas and Fatah, the other leading Palestinian party. Their bodies were draped in the flags of their movements, while religious and martial music blared. 
   
   Sanna Siri — whose sons Mohammad, 17, and Yahiva, 20, were killed — cried out to God and cursed the Israelis minutes after the funeral procession left her home. 
   
   “My sons went to the heavens as angels,” Siri said. She called the Israelis “pigs” and said she hoped they suffer. 
   
   Booth reported from Gaza City. ||||| On Thursday, NBC News reportedly pulled correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin out of the Gaza Strip citing “security concerns.” Meanwhile, NBC News correspondent Richard Engel was allowed to stay in the region. But now, it appears the network has reversed its decision and will be sending the reporter back to Gaza to continue his coverage as soon as possible. 
   
   
   
   
   
   New York Times media reporter Bill Carter tweeted the news Friday evening: 
   
   NBC News reverses decision on Gaza correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin–will send him back into Gaza as soon as possible — Bill Carter (@wjcarter) July 18, 2014 
   
   Suspicion over the cause of NBC’s initial decision to remove Mohyeldin followed a widely seen report he gave on Wednesday, describing an Israeli missile attack that killed four Gazan children and injured three others. Glenn Greenwald, who first reported NBC’s decision on First Look, criticized the network for removing the correspondent “at exactly the moment where he brought the humanity of this war and the humanity of Gazans to the world.” 
   
   Greenwald called the reversal “GREAT news” on Twitter Friday, crediting the social media outcry for pressuring NBC to reconsider its move. 
   
   GREAT news: NBC reverses its decision on pulling @AymanM – sending him back to Gaza on Sunday https://t.co/4ClcJ7PaGs — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 18, 2014 
   
   No question: an interesting testament to the power of social media. RT @leahmcelrath Do you think the outcry helped? #NBC — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 18, 2014 
   
   UPDATE — 8:35 p.m. ET: NBC’s official statement, as posted by HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: 
   
   Watch the report that may have led to NBC pulling Mohyeldin out of Gaza below, via MSNBC: 
   
   [Photo via screengrab] 
   
   — — 
   
   >> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter 
   
   Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — NBC said Friday it was sending Middle East correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin back to the Gaza strip this weekend after he left the region for unexplained reasons following his eyewitness report on the killing of four Palestinian boys on a beach this week. 
   
   The network praised Mohyeldin for his "extraordinary reporting" throughout the conflict in Gaza. NBC said that as with any news team in combat zones, deployments are constantly reassessed. 
   
   Mohyeldin's firsthand reports on the deaths of the four boys Wednesday were aired on the "Today" show and MSNBC, and he tweeted that he had played soccer with some of the victims shortly before the attack. But then his social media account went quiet, and when NBC's "Nightly News" reported on the deaths Wednesday, correspondent Richard Engel did the story and Mohyeldin was nowhere to be seen. 
   
   His absence was immediately noticed in the news world. When NBC refused to discuss the situation, there was much online speculation that the network had problems with his reporting. Mohyeldin, who has worked extensively in the Middle East and reported for Al Jazeera English before joining NBC in 2011, has received some criticism of his reporting from pro-Israeli groups. 
   
   In announcing his return to Gaza on Friday, NBC still would not discuss Mohyeldin's temporary absence. But the network made a point to compliment him. 
   
   "Ayman Mohyeldin has done extraordinary reporting throughout the escalation of the conflict in Gaza, filing 25+ reports over the past 17 days, including his invaluable and well-documented contribution to the story on the deaths of the four Palestinian children on Wednesday," the network said in a statement. 
   
   News organizations are usually reluctant to talk about security of its personnel in danger zones, or if some of their employees had been threatened. 
   
   While working at Al Jazeera English, Mohyeldin was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011. 
   
   Tensions in the region affected another reporter, CNN's Diana Magnay, as she reported live Thursday on Israel's launch of a ground attack in Gaza. Magnay tweeted that she was surrounded by Israelis watching the action who cheered the explosions and threatened to "destroy our car if I say a word wrong." 
   
   Magnay called those who threatened her "scum," leading CNN to apologize Friday and reassign her to Russia. ||||| GAZA/JERUSALEM Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Saturday, the army said, as the Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose above 300 with no diplomatic solution in sight. 
   
   The Israeli military said four other soldiers were wounded in the raid by fighters who reached Israel through a concealed tunnel. One Hamas gunman was killed, while the rest of the group managed to escape back into the Gaza Strip, the military added. 
   
   Israel sent ground forces into Hamas-controlled Gaza on Thursday after 10 days of air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire from the Palestinian territory. 
   
   It has vowed to destroy a network of tunnels out of Gaza and hunt down the militants' stockpiles of missiles. 
   
   The land incursion has so far failed to subdue Hamas and its allies, who fired more than 90 rockets into Israel on Saturday, the Israeli army said. One killed a man and wounded two children in a southern Bedouin Arab village in Israel, police said. 
   
   Gaza officials said at least 336 Palestinians, including 70 children, have been killed in the 12-day conflict - about 100 in the last 48 hours alone. On Israel's side, three soldiers and two civilians have died. 
   
   Israel said the Palestinian gunmen who ambushed and killed its troops were disguised as Israeli soldiers. In a separate incident, Israel said it shot and killed another gunman who opened fire at them after emerging from a tunnel shaft. 
   
   Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire involving, amongst others, Egypt, Qatar, France and the United Nations, have failed to make headway. Hamas rejected an attempt by Cairo last week to end the fighting. 
   
   The sound of explosions rocked Gaza through the day, while sirens repeatedly sounded in towns and cities in southern and central Israel, warning of approaching missiles. 
   
   Eight members of a Palestinian family, including a six-month old baby and two children aged three and 13, died overnight when an Israeli shell hit their house in Beit Hanoun, in northeastern Gaza, officials said. 
   
   "Oh, God. Oh, God," a shocked relative said, repeatedly knocking his head against a wall. 
   
   Hostilities between the two sides escalated following the killing last month of three Jewish students that Israel blames on Hamas. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, for which Israel has charged three Jews, further fueled tensions. 
   
   BULLDOZERS, TUNNELS 
   
   Israeli bulldozers and engineers worked along a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier, uncovering 13 tunnels, at least one of them 30 meters (90 feet) deep, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said. 
   
   About 95 rocket launchers were also found and destroyed in the sweep, he added. 
   
   Searches were continuing on what he described as an open-ended mission that had "severely impeded Hamas capabilities". 
   
   Explosives piled onto a donkey blew up in southern Gaza after Israeli troops opened fire, suspecting the animal had been booby-trapped, the Israeli military said. 
   
   Israel says more than 1,500 rockets have been fired out of Gaza during this month's fighting, and between 3,000-4,000 others destroyed in military strikes - together almost half of the militants' original estimated arsenal. 
   
   Hamas says it is continuously replenishing its stock of weapons and is ready for a prolonged conflict. 
   
   The Israeli death toll has been kept low due to the rockets' relative inaccuracy, a network of air raid sirens and shelters and the Iron Dome rocket interceptor's 90 percent success rate. 
   
   The Israeli military urged Palestinians to flee an ever-growing area of Gaza ahead of further military action in the Mediterranean enclave. Locals say about half of the territory's 1.8-million population have been told to move. 
   
   With both the Israeli and Egyptian borders sealed off, Gazans say they have few places to escape to. 
   
   The largest United Nations agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said about 61,500 people had sought refugee in its buildings, mainly schools - more than in any previous conflict there between Israel and Islamist militants. 
   
   "My family and I left the house with nothing but the clothes we were wearing at two in the morning," said Kareem Ramadan, 45, an unemployed father of three, resting in an UNWRA school in northern Gaza. 
   
   "Maybe we'll go back and see the house destroyed, but at least we're alive." 
   
   NO CEASEFIRE 
   
   U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to travel to the region this weekend as part of a growing international efforts to end hostilities. 
   
   France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who flew to Israel after meetings in Egypt and Jordan, said efforts to secure a ceasefire so far had failed. 
   
   "On the contrary, there's a risk of more civilian casualties that worries us," Fabius said, after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. 
   
   Egypt said on Saturday it had no plans to revise the ceasefire proposal, which Hamas has already rejected. 
   
   "There will be no truce without an end to the war that the Occupation (Israel) began, a lifting of the blockade and a halt to all violations and killings in Gaza and the West Bank," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza. 
   
   Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of numerous European cities, including London and Paris, to demand an immediate end to the conflict. Hundreds of protesters for and against the offensive also faced off in two Israeli cities. 
   
   (Writing by Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams; Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, John Irish in Amman and Tel Aviv, and Allyn Fisher in Jerusalem; Editing by Andrew Heavens) ||||| GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and battled Gaza militants on the second day of an open-ended ground operation Saturday, as the Palestinian death toll climbed past 330 and diplomats scrambled to revive cease-fire efforts. 
   
   An Israeli armored personnel carrier moves near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged... (Associated Press) 
   
   EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -In this Friday, July 18, 2014 photo, Palestinians gather around the body of Ahmed Barnasawi, 22, at the Shifa hospital's morgue as workers prepare him for burial, in Gaza City,... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian mourners gather around the lifeless body of one year-old Rizk Hayek, who was killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
   
   Israeli forces' flares light up the night sky in the northern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza on Friday to destroy rocket launching sites and tunnels,... (Associated Press) 
   
   A Palestinian child runs on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press) 
   
   A man takes a photo with his mobile phone of the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, and Rizk Hayek, 1, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City,... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinians carry the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
   
   Israeli armor is seen through dust near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in gunbattles... (Associated Press) 
   
   A Palestinian child walks on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press) 
   
   Palestinian inspects a ruble of a destroyed house of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell on Friday in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed... (Associated Press) 
   
   Israeli armored personnel carriers move along the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in... (Associated Press) 
   
   The Israeli military said it had severely diminished the arsenal of Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling Gaza, but the militants have continued to fire rockets. 
   
   In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials reported intensified Israeli airstrikes, shelling and numerous civilian casualties. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said the new round of strikes raised the death toll from the 12-day offensive to more than 330 Palestinians, many of them civilians and nearly a fourth of them under the age of 18. 
   
   In Israel, a Gaza rocket killed a man near the southern city of Dimona and wounded four people, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, marking the second Israeli civilian casualty from the fighting. An Israeli soldier was killed after the start of the ground operation, likely from friendly fire. 
   
   The Israeli military said during its first 24 hours on the ground in Gaza troops discovered 13 tunnels into Israel — some as deep as 30 meters (yards) — that could be used to carry out attacks. Israel says it launched the offensive to deal with that threat. On Saturday, the military said it thwarted a second infiltration attempt through just such a tunnel, killing one militant and forcing the others to return to Gaza. Two soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants in the firefight, the army said. 
   
   The military also said it has hit 2,350 targets in Gaza, including 1,100 rocket launchers, during the 12 days of fighting. Militants have fired more than 1,600 rockets since July 8. 
   
   "We have struck hard on the two main strategic assets of Hamas: the rockets and these tunnels," Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said. 
   
   Israel says it has encountered little resistance on the ground so far, and has killed about 20 militants in sporadic gunbattles. Three soldiers were wounded in overnight fighting, one seriously, the military said. 
   
   In one case, it said troops encountered a man who appealed for medical assistance before pulling out grenades and trying to hurl them at soldiers. He was shot dead, authorities said. Troops also encountered a donkey with explosives strapped to it. 
   
   Israel launched the ground operation late Thursday after its air campaign on the Hamas-ruled territory failed to halt the unrelenting rocket fire. The rate of Palestinian casualties has risen since the ground offensive began — Al-Kidra said more than 90 Palestinians have since been killed. 
   
   Casualties could quickly mount further if the military moves further into urban areas. 
   
   Some 50,000 Palestinians already are staying in United Nations shelters, according to UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians. 
   
   Early Saturday, Israeli tank fire killed at least five members of the Al Zawaydi family at their home in Beit Lahiya, including two children. In a separate incident, tank shell fire killed three members of the Hamooda family in their home, among them two children. 
   
   In Gaza City, two boys and a 1-year-old infant neighbor were killed Friday evening following the break of the Ramadan fast. On Saturday, at least two of the bodies were carried by somber relatives during a funeral procession in Gaza City. 
   
   A neighbor described the damage to the home as a "world turned upside down." 
   
   "The blood is filling the place everywhere. Small kids, it's a shame, they're kids," Amer al-Jumaasi said. 
   
   An Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade as part of any cease-fire agreement. 
   
   Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri on Saturday repeated a call for the two sides to adopt its cease-fire initiative, saying it is the only offer on the table, despite efforts from Hamas backers Turkey and Qatar to broker a deal. 
   
   "This initiative still presents the chance for the two sides to cease fire, ending the bloodshed," he said. "It meets the needs of both sides. We will continue to propose it. We hope both sides accept it." 
   
   In a fresh effort to broker a truce, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was to leave Saturday for the Middle East to help mediate the Gaza conflict. A cease-fire is "indispensable" for urgently needed humanitarian efforts to succeed, the undersecretary-general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday. 
   
   Israeli officials have said the offensive could last up to two weeks. The military reported making steady progress but said dozens of tunnels remain and would not give a time frame for its operation. 
   
   Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, visited troops on the Gaza border early Saturday and said "a strategic national patience is necessary" to complete the mission. 
   
   "Hamas and other terror organizations have been hit hard, painfully and extensively," he added. 
   
   But Gaza militants have remained defiant despite the heavy death toll. 
   
   "The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip will not surrender to the enemy and will not raise the white flag," Ziad Nakhala, a leader in the Islamic Jihad militant group, told a Palestinian radio station. "We are open to all possibilities as long as the enemy does not respond to the demands of the resistance." 
   
   Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, including long-range projectiles, and has built a system of underground bunkers. 
   
   But Hamas is weaker than it was during the previous two offensives, with little international or even regional support from its main allies, Turkey and Qatar. Protests against the offensive took place Friday in Turkey, Jordan and the West Bank. 
   
   ___ 
   
   Heller reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Lefteris Pitarakis in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
target: – With day two of its ground offensive in Gaza under way, Israel says it's discovered 13 tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate the country or store weapons, reports AP. Israeli tanks and bulldozers are focusing on a strip about a mile wide near the border, looking for both tunnels and rocket pads, reports Reuters. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others injured today by Hamas fighters who emerged from one of those tunnels, reports the Washington Post. One Hamas militant also was killed in the firefight. Palestinians, meanwhile, say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has passed 330, with nearly a quarter of those killed under the age of 18. In other developments: NBC reporter returns: NBC has reversed itself and allowed Ayman Mohyeldin to continue reporting from Gaza, reports AP. The network pulled Mohyeldin for unexplained reasons after he reported on the deaths of four Palestinian children, noting among other things that he had just been kicking around a ball with them. The move set off a social media outcry, especially among fellow journalists, notes Mediaite. The network had nothing but praise for Mohyeldin's "extraordinary reporting" in announcing his return. Analysis: In a New York Times analysis, Jodi Rudoren writes that the "landscape is different" than in years' past for this latest ground offensive, in ways that benefit Israel. This time, Israel "has publicly framed a clear agenda targeting tunnels it says militants built to store weapons or stage attacks on its territory. This time, a weakened Hamas cannot turn to Egypt for respite. This time, Western leaders appear more patient." That could change, however, if the ground offensive expands. Click for the full analysis.