The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsboxlead with Israeli troops and tanks pushing deeper into the Gaza Strip as the ground invasion continues with no end in sight. Under heavy protection from air and naval power, Israeli soldiers surrounded Gaza's main city and essentially cut the strip in half. For their part, Hamas militants continued to fire rockets into Israel. As the Palestinian death toll passed the 500 mark, there were mounting international calls for a cease-fire, but an Israeli military official warned that the offensive would not end "in hours or a few days."

The Washington Postoff-leads the news out of Gaza and leads with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's decision to withdraw his name from consideration to be Commerce secretary in the President-elect Barack Obama's administration. Richardson said that an ongoing investigation into how a political donor received a lucrative state contract would have "forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process." Richardson's withdrawal "marked the first visible crack in what had been one of the smoothest presidential transitions in modern history," declares the Post.

The LAT hears word that at least 35 Palestinians died yesterday. The Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers had been killed and denied claims by Hamas that it had killed nine, and captured two, Israeli soldiers. The NYT says that after a week of an intense aerial campaign, "the first 24 hours of ground combat appeared to have been comparatively restrained." Israeli troops have so far avoided Gaza's major population centers. USAT helpfully explains that in Gaza's most crowded areas, "about 1.4 million people are packed into an area roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C." If Israeli forces do decide to enter Gaza's densely populated urban areas, it "would probably prompt a fierce and bloody street-to-street battle against militant forces with intimate knowledge of the dense urban terrain," notes the LAT.

USAT points out that by splitting the strip in half, "Israel is trying to choke off Hamas' supply lines."  But as the WP highlights, that has also made it more difficult to get relief supplies to residents of northern Gaza. U.N. officials insist Israel is lying when it says that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Meanwhile, the United States blocked the U.N. Security Council from issuing a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire. The NYT points out that the Security Council will be under greater pressure to act with the scheduled arrival in New York today of a delegation led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

While many have compared the current operation to the disastrous 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the WSJ says that Israel seems to have learned some lessons. As opposed to 2006, Israeli leaders "have set out clearly defined—and relatively modest—expectations," and they've also spent days preparing the public for a long fight.

In an analysis piece, the NYT notes that many Middle East experts speculate that one of the reasons why Israel decided to attack now is that it knew it could count on the support of the Bush administration. Although President-elect Barack Obama has expressed support for Israel in the past, Israeli officials still don't know whether the incoming administration "would match the Bush administration's unconditional endorsement." Even if Obama proves to be very pro-Israel, it's likely that Israeli officials didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the new administration by forcing the new president to respond to a military campaign during his first days in office.

The NYT fronts a dispatch that describes the scenes of desperation at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. In the days after the air campaign began, hundreds of Hamas fighters streamed into the hospital, but yesterday "there appeared not to be a single one," as the casualties were "women, children, and men who had been with children." One Norwegian doctor tells the paper that the hospital faces a severe shortage of supplies and, like the rest of Gaza, is running low on fuel. Although it's possible that the injured Hamas fighters were being treated at another hospital, the NYT also points out that many ambulance drivers refuse to go into the most dangerous areas. The LAT reports that one paramedic was killed when an  ambulance funded by Oxfam was hit by an Israeli shell.

In a piece inside, the WP takes a look at the harrowing question that many Gaza residents are facing as the Israeli invasion continues: "Flee the shelling and shooting, or hole up inside their homes and hope for the best?" It's an impossible question to answer because there seems to be no place immune to Israeli fire, and residents are trapped inside Gaza.

"The essential dilemma Israel faces is this," writes Max Boot in the WSJ, "It can't ignore Hamas's attacks," but it also can't "do what it takes to wipe out the enemy, because of the constraints imposed by its own public." In the end, Israel "is forced to fight an unsatisfying war of attrition with Hamas, Hezbollah and other entities bent on its destruction." Once Israel leaves, it's likely that Hamas will rebuild, "forcing the Israelis to go back in the future."

In a statement, Obama said that he accepted Richardson's decision to withdraw "with deep regret." And while everyone insists that no one in Obama's team pressured the governor to reach the decision, the NYT says that the president-elect didn't try to persuade Richardson to change his mind. A federal grand jury is currently investigating whether Richardson or members of his staff pressured state employees to give CDR Financial Products two lucrative consulting contracts worth around $1.5 million. The NYT details that the company's president gave around $100,000 to two political action committees started by Richardson as well as $10,000 to his 2005 re-election campaign.