Jordan's Queen Rania at the Unicef office in Amman. Rania appealed for urgent aid for those in Gaza, saying that global humanity is “incomplete” when children become victims of military operations. (Reuters)

Gaza, Jan. 5 (Reuters): Israeli tanks, planes and ground forces pounded Gaza today and the defence minister said the offensive against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave would go on until Israel was safe.

International efforts to secure a ceasefire moved ahead with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and West Asia special envoy Tony Blair visiting the region, but they seemed able to offer little beyond words.

The death toll in besieged Gaza rose today to at least 530 people. Victims included three Palestinian children and their mother when a tank shell hit their home in Gaza City and seven members of another family were killed in a refugee camp.

The Israeli army said “many dozens” of Islamist fighters had been killed since ground troops went in on Saturday in a stated attempt to end rocket fire by Hamas into southern Israel.

“Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective and therefore the operation continues,” Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said.

A Hamas official said a delegation from the Islamist group would head for talks in Egypt, which has also opened contacts to achieve a ceasefire. But senior Hamas political leader Mahmoud Zahar urged Hamas forces to fight on “in the name of God”.

“They legalised for us knocking down their synagogues when they hit our mosques, they legalised for us knocking down their schools when they hit our schools,” he said in a speech broadcast in Gaza.

Gunbattles intensified in eastern Gaza City and in the north of the strip today. Militants fired mortars and grenades and detonated mines, and claimed to have hit a troop carrier.

They were also trying to lure Israeli soldiers into built-up areas, witnesses said. A military spokeswoman said the air force bombed more than 30 targets, including homes of Hamas members used as weapons depots, tunnels and a suspected anti-aircraft rocket launcher.

Israel launched its offensive with an air blitz on December 27 to curtail the rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza before an Israeli national election next month.