Israel briefly deployed troops inside the Gaza Strip for the first time in its current offensive early yesterday as the country ignored international calls for peace.

Naval commandos were sent in to destroy what Israel claimed was a rocket-launching site.

Around 4,000 people later fled from the northern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave after Israel dropped leaflets telling them to evacuate to avoid a “short and temporary” campaign.

Israel has been massing tanks and soliders, calling up 40,000 reservists, along Gaza’s borders with a senior military official declaring yesterday: “All our ground forces are ready.”

He threatened: “We have been training for this. We will exploit our ability the moment a decision is made to do so.”

Thousands raced out, many carrying white flags.

Beit Lahiya resident Mohammad Abu Halemah said: “Once we received the message, we felt scared to stay in our homes. We want to leave.”

Essam al-Sultan, a farmer from the same town, said he had been forced to flee as the youngest of his eight children was terrified by the airstrikes.

“For me I don’t fear death because we are dying every single moment of this war,” he said.

“I left because I want to protect my family.”

An Israeli ground operation would be likely to cause the already high death count — 166 since Tuesday as the Star went to press — to rocket significantly.

But despite international pleas for peace, Israel expanded its bombing campaign at the weekend to include civilian sites that it suspected of ties to Hamas, which governs the Strip.

One strike hit a center for the disabled, killing two patients.

And an airstrike killed 18 members of Gazan police chief Taysir al-Batsh’s family, who had fled his own home after being told that he was a target.

Hundreds joined the funeral procession for the dead yesterday.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said yesterday that it had launched more than 1,300 air strikes since the offensive began — compared to just 800 from the Palestinian militants they are supposedly responding to.

Several Israelis have been wounded, though so far there have been no deaths.

In the town of Sderot less than a mile from Gaza Israelis gathered on a hilltop to applaud the bombardment. 

In West Bank city Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had appealed to UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon for “international protection” for the Palestinian people.

“The situation has become unbearable — hundreds of martyrs and thousands of wounded and huge destruction,” he said.