Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli soldiers have advanced farther into Gaza City in their assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip's north.
They were met with resistance from terrorist hit-and-run strikes from underground tunnels from the Hamas Side.
The Palestinian death toll following nearly four weeks of Israeli air and artillery assaults on the blockaded enclave surpassed 9,000 on Thursday, according to Gaza health officials.
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Israel has declared war on the Gaza Strip's main population core in the north, vowing to destroy the Islamist group's command structure and ordering inhabitants to flee to the south.
"We're at the height of the battle. We've had impressive successes and have passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing," Netanyahu said in a statement. He gave no further details.
In a televised address, Israeli military chief Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi said, "Our forces are now in the heart of a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip."
The chief of Israel's military engineers, Brigadier General Iddo Mizrahi, said forces were in the early stages of creating access routes in Gaza but were facing mines and booby traps.
"Hamas has learned and prepared itself well," he added.
Residents reported Hamas and associated Islamic Jihad gunmen emerged from tunnels to fire on tanks before vanishing back into the network, and films from both factions showed this.
