Israeli Forces Push Deeper Into Gaza Strip as International Critics Warn of Worsening Humanitarian Crisis

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Conflict in Gaza Continues

Assault on Gaza Strip continues as rockets fall on southern Israel.

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In Gaza City, wounded Palestinians streamed into Shifa Hospital, including women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. Ambulances, sirens blaring, sped through the streets. People piled the injured into cars or carried them in their arms into the hospital.

Gunness, the spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said fuel shortages are worsening and hospitals are running on emergency generators. Electricity is growing scarce. About 250,000 people are without drinking water, he said, and he predicted that wheat flour would run out in three days.

"Gaza has been bifurcated by this offensive. We can't get food up to the north," Gunness said. "In anyone's book, this is a humanitarian crisis."

Protests against the Israeli military operation occurred Sunday in several European countries. In Greece, demonstrators set fire to banks, assaulted police with rocks and hurled shoes at the Israeli Embassy. From Paris to Poland, tens of thousands of protesters called for an end to the Israeli offensive.

In the Muslim world, thousands marched in Beirut and in Ankara, Turkey, and Amman, Jordan. Many demonstrators accused Arab governments of not doing enough to support the Palestinians. Under pressure from its citizens, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab nations to sign peace treaties with Israel, condemned the ground assault.

"The violence has to stop," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's external relations commissioner.

Correspondents Craig Whitlock in Jerusalem and Griff Witte in Sderot, Israel, contributed to this report.