Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel's fierce bombardment of Gaza was "just the beginning" of his country's response to a Hamas onslaught that left 1,300 dead.
With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed on the Gaza frontier, Netanyahu said in televised address: "Our enemies have only just started paying the price. I cannot reveal what will happen, but I am telling you this is just the beginning."
Netanyahu spoke only hours after the Israeli military revealed that troops had carried out localised raids inside the besieged Palestinian territory over the past 24 hours as a prelude to an anticipated ground invasion.
Israel has also told Palestinians to leave Gaza City within 24 hours, sparking UN warnings of a humanitarian disaster.
Netanyahu reaffirmed his pledge that Hamas would be "destroyed".
"We will never forgive, we will never let the world forget these horrors inflicted on the Jewish people. We will fight our enemies using a power without limit."
The deadly attack which Hamas gunmen launched last Saturday also saw around 150 Israelis and foreigners abducted to Gaza as hostages.
Gaza officials say that retaliatory Israeli shelling and air raids have killed about 1,800 people in the Hamas-ruled territory.
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