GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) — Israeli aircraft continued their assault on Gaza Sunday, despite an Israeli official’s assessment that the two-week-old military operation may be in its final days.
A Palestinian man mourns in front of the morgue at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital on Sunday.
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Israel has said the air and ground operation is aimed at stopping rocket fire from Gaza, but militants have continued to launch rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.
At least 17 rockets struck Israel on Sunday, causing some damage but no casualties, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Israel may be close to "the end of the operation" because of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Sunday.
"The decision of the U.N. Security Council doesn’t leave us much leeway," Vilnai told Israel Radio. "It would seem then, I’m guessing, that we are close to the end of the ground operation and the end of the operation altogether."
The U.N. resolution was rejected by both Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that "further patience" is needed, despite the fact that "Israel is nearing the goals it set" for its military operation in Gaza.
"We must not, at the last minute, lose what has been achieved in an unprecedented national effort that restored the spirit of unity to the nation," Olmert said. "The Israeli public, especially the residents of the south, have the requisite patience and willingness — so does the government."
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Israeli soldiers on Sunday closed in on Gaza City from the north and the south. Residents said heavy shelling and large plumes of black smoke emanated from the city. Also, there was heavy gunfire in northeast Gaza from a location where two rockets were launched toward Israel on Sunday.
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