Israeli troops and Hamas fighters traded fierce gunfire on the streets of Gaza City on Tuesday as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas accused the Jewish state of trying to “wipe out” his people.

Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes barrelled their way ever deeper into Gaza’s largest city, advancing several hundred metres (yards) into several neighbourhoods in the south, witnesses and correspondents said.

The Gaza fighting has raised tensions around the region and galvanized anger toward Israel throughout the Arab world. On Tuesday, at least one gunman opened fire at an Israeli army patrol along the desert border between Israel and Jordan, the military said. There were no casualties, and Jordan said the claim was “baseless.”

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli military said, a Palestinian was shot and injured after he tried to grab a gun from an Israeli soldier whose patrol stopped him for questioning. The man later died, according to an Associated Press reporter who saw his body.

Israelis remain overwhelmingly supportive of the military operation in Gaza, according to the latest poll. With few casualties among soldiers and civilians, and the government keeping the focus on stopping rocket attacks, more than 91 percent of Israel’s Jewish population support the operation, and less than 4 percent oppose it, according to a Ma’ariv/Teleseker survey published on Jan. 9. The poll was based on a sample of 500 respondents and had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

International aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, water and medicines in the impoverished Gaza Strip, where about 1.5 million people live in an area of 360 square kilometers (144 square miles).

And the bombs go on and on…….