Newspaper headlines: Gaza braced for invasion and Flintoff gets BBC payout

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By BBC News
Staff
EPA

Residents of Gaza City evacuate ahead of an expected ground offensive by the Israeli military

Warning: This article contains details and images that some readers may find disturbing.

The expected ground offensive into Gaza by Israeli forces dominates the front pages.

The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail lead on the news that a small number of elite Israeli troops have already entered the territory. They say the forces will be trying to find the hostages still being held by Hamas.

The Times says one of the most vulnerable hostages is a disabled 17-year-old girl, Rut Perez, who is unable to walk or talk, and is entirely reliant on her family to feed her through a tube. She was with her father at the Supernova music festival when it was attacked by Hamas.

The Guardian and FT Weekend report that thousands of people have been fleeing from northern Gaza to the south after Israel gave them 24 hours to leave ahead of the coming offensive. According to the Guardian, there were no signs of mass movement for much of the day, but by the afternoon people had begun to make their way south - some packed into cars and lorries, others on foot.

A plea from the Archbishop of Canterbury that innocent Palestinian civilians not be made to pay the price for Hamas's attacks leads the Daily Express. The archbishop is calling for a humanitarian corridor and convoy in Gaza.

Analysis by the Daily Telegraph says any Israeli ground assault in Gaza will be fraught with danger because Hamas has spent two decades building a labyrinth of deep defensive tunnels, some of them 100 feet beneath the surface. An Israeli expert tells the paper that the tunnels are probably relatively comfortable to be in - because Hamas leaders are hiding in them and have command and control centres there.

Writing in the Sun, defence expert professor Michael Clark argues that Hamas has set what he calls an "almighty trap" and that Israel is likely to walk straight into it. He says Hamas is trying to draw Israel into street-by-street fighting, hoping that images of Palestinian children dying will ignite a wider conflict involving other actors in the region, including the Iran-controlled Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

The Daily Mirror says the Metropolitan Police is on high alert as pro-Palestinian demonstrators prepare to protest in London on Saturday. One of the groups organising the march tells the paper it wants a peaceful event. The Daily Telegraph says similar protests are also set to take place in Birmingham, Brighton, Newcastle, and Bolton, and that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been briefed by senior barristers on when they could arrest protesters.

Away from the Middle East crisis, the Daily Mail is one of several papers highlighting a warning from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that public finances have deteriorated since the spring and that he'll have to take difficult decisions in his Autumn Statement next month. He said higher interest rates meant the cost of servicing government debt had increased by between £20 billion and £30 billion.

And the Yorkshire Post reports that train operator Northern has started to broadcast predatory hawk calls through speakers to deter defecating pigeons from Driffield Station in East Yorkshire. The paper says it's hoped the noises will give commuters some respite from pigeons who regularly carpet bomb the platforms with faeces.