A matter of time Israeli troops are now on the ground in Gaza - but for how long?

The heavy fog that cloaked Gaza's agony on the morning after Israeli troops arrived was burned away by the sun - only to be replaced by the smoke of hundreds of bombs, and between the blasts, there was a new sound: machine gun fire. The taking of Gaza territory had begun.

-  Julian Borger

It was not an all-out invasion, at least not yet, but nor was it the sort of in-and-out incursion of the sort the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had performed on the preceding nights.

The ratchet has been turned up, and Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, made clear last weekend that it would continue to turn. "We attacked above the ground and underground, we attacked terror operatives of all ranks, everywhere," Gallant said in a video statement.

"The instructions for the forces are clear: the operation will continue until a new order." That "new order" means a world without Hamas, the stated goal of Operation Swords of Iron. But it will also be a world without thousands of Palestinian civilians, trapped in the wreckage of Gaza.