By Sakher Abu El Oun
Agence France-Presse

GAZA CITY?Israeli troops pushed deep into Gaza on Sunday with thousands of soldiers and scores of tanks battling Hamas fighters and moving toward the capital on a mission to end militant rocket attacks.

At least 19 Palestinians were killed in the new fighting as trucks and cars packed with families fled Gaza City and other towns ahead of the biggest Israeli military operation since its 2006 war in Lebanon.

In Manila, President Arroyo ordered the evacuation of all Filipinos in the Gaza Strip as Israel pursued its ground assault on the Hamas-controlled area.

?We have a very specific evacuation plan prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs,? Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.

?[The Filipinos] will be flown out via Amman, and then they will be flown to Manila.?

Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal said the department had booked flights for 66 Filipinos who had agreed to leave Gaza.

?The plan is to move them out to Amman on Sunday, from where they?ll take their flight to Manila,? he said.

International efforts to halt the conflict floundered. The UN Security Council failed even to agree on the wording of a statement on the conflict, with the United States giving strong backing to Israel while other powers criticized the offensive.

Explosions shook the north of the Hamas-controlled enclave, home to 1.5 million people, and thick smoke covered much of the territory as the Israeli army took control of main roads.

Israeli infantry and tanks were in the former Jewish colony of Netzarim, just south of Gaza City. Heavy fighting was also reported north of the city and around the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

At least 19 people have been killed since Israel launched the night-time offensive on Saturday after eight days of air strikes in which at least 485 Palestinians died and more than 2,400 were wounded, Gaza medics said.

More than 80 children are among the dead.

Some 30 Israeli soldiers and ?several? Hamas fighters were reported to have been wounded in the ground offensive, the army and medics said.

The Israeli army denied Hamas claims that soldiers had been killed. On Sunday, Al-Jazeera news channel in Dubai reported that one Israeli had been killed in the clashes.

Palestinian ambulances were unable to reach the scene of the fighting.

A Hamas spokesman, speaking as the ground offensive was launched, said that Gaza would become ?a cemetery? for Israeli troops.

Witnesses on Sunday said that Israeli infantry units and tanks had taken control of the Salaheddine Road, the main highway along the length of of the enclave, on either side of Gaza City.

Advancing troops exchanged fire with Hamas fighters, who shot off mortar rounds and detonated roadside bombs, they said, adding that Israeli forces were seen detaining people.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned ahead of a cabinet meeting Sunday that the operation would not be ?simple.?

?The operation will be expanded and intensified as much as necessary. War is not a picnic.?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was ?not interested? in opening up a new front in the north of the country, in a veiled reference to tensions with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Olmert said he had instructed the army to be ?extremely alert and prepared for any development in the event that someone might think that this is his opportunity to take advantage? of the conflict in Gaza.

Israel unleashed ?Operation Cast Lead? on Dec. 27 with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks into Israel from the territory which had been under tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months. The rocket attacks had resumed after the end of a six-month truce.

Rocket fire from Gaza since the operation started has killed four people in Israel. More missiles hit the town of Sderot on Sunday, though no casualties were reported.

Israel?s offensive has sparked spiralling anger in the Muslim world and protests across the globe.

The UN Security Council failed to agree a statement calling for a ceasefire despite nearly four hours of closed-door consultations late on Saturday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement that ?what is happening in the Security Council is a farce that shows the level that America and the Zionist occupier dominates its decisions.?

The deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, said after the talks that Washington believed it was crucial ?not to return to the status quo? that had allowed Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.

?The efforts we are making internationally are designed to establish a sustainable, durable ceasefire that?s respected by all,? Wolff said.

?And that means no more rocket attacks. It means no more smuggling of arms.?

France led criticism of the ground invasion that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned would have ?grave consequences? for the region.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due in Israel on Monday for talks on a ceasefire with Olmert in Jerusalem and Abbas in Ramallah. With Joyce Pangco Pa?ares and Michael Caber