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ByKarinLaub The Associated Press GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP Thousands of Israeli sol- diers invaded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, escalat- ing a 10-day military op- eration to try to destroy Hamas' weapons arsenal, rocket firing abilities and tunnels under the Palestin- ian territory's border with Israel. It was the first major Is- raeli ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years and came after Egyp- tian-led efforts to broker a cease-fire failed. Earlier Thursday, 13 Hamas mili- tants tried to infiltrate Is- rael through a tunnel un- der the Gaza-Israel border, but were stopped by an Is- raeli strike at the mouth of the tunnel. The military said the op- eration was open-ended and would be carried out on several fronts in the coastal strip. "Our forces, large ground forces accompanied by mas- sive air force support, naval forces and intelligence, are taking over targets in Gaza, operating against tunnels and terror activists and in- frastructure," Israel's chief military spokesman Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz said. He called on Gaza res- idents to evacuate areas where the military is op- erating, warning the "mili- tary is operating there with very great force." Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and huge DC9 bulldozers entered the Hamas-ruled territory af- ter 10 p.m. Thursday, secu- rity officials and Israeli me- dia said. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Israel "will pay dearly" for the assault. "Hamas is ready for a con- frontation," he said. An official in the Gaza se- curity operations room re- ported heavy Israeli tank shelling along Gaza's bor- der areas with Israel since 8 p.m. Thursday. "All border areas are un- der fire. There is a tank shell every minute," said the offi- cial, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations. "There is also fire from the sea to- ward police checkpoints." Thousands of Israeli sol- diers had massed on the border with Gaza in re- cent days, waiting for the order to go in. Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers and Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, another Israeli mil- itary spokesman, said more could be called up. The ground operation followed a brief truce ear- lier Thursday in which Is- rael held fire to allow Ga- zans to stock up on food and other necessities after being largely holed up at home since the conflict be- gan last month. Since July 8, Israeli strikes have hit more than 2,000 targets in Gaza and Hamas launched nearly 1,500 rockets at Israel, the Israeli military has said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's of- fice said he instructed the army to go ahead after Hamas rejected an Egyp- tian cease-fire plan ear- lier in the week and after Hamas militants tried to in- filtrate into Israel through a tunnel from Gaza. "In light of the despicable and relentless aggression by Hamas and the dangerous infiltration into Israel, Is- rael is obliged to protect its citizens," the statement said. Israel last carried out a major ground offensive in Gaza in January 2009. The ground operation came to- ward the end of a three- week military campaign. MIDDLE EAST IsraelinvadesGazaa erHamasrejectstruce LEFTERISPITARAKIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Smoke from flares rises in the sky in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday. By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON Amid hard- ening positions by both political parties, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he's losing opti- mism that Democrats and Republicans can agree be- fore their summer break on legislation to address the influx of young Central Americans across the U.S. border. Boehner said any legisla- tion that would send emer- gency funds to the bor- der to alleviate the surge of migrants should be ac- companied by a change in a 2008 law that he says is being abused. Most Dem- ocrats oppose that option, and the Democratic chair- man of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee em- phasized Thursday that he can't accept changing U.S. policy to speed the removal of Central American kids without court hearings. Asked if he had confi- dence Republicans and Democrats could reach agreement by month's end, Boehner said: "I don't have as much optimism as I'd like to have." Congress leaves for a month long re- cess at the end of July. President Barack Obama has asked for $3.7 bil- lion in emergency spend- ing to boost enforcement at the border and to in- crease housing for the bor- der crossing minors. Re- publicans want to lower the amount and want changes in a law that would help speed up removals. "I don't know how Con- gress can send more money to the border to begin to mitigate the problem if you don't do something about the '08 law that is being abused," Boehner said. "And it is being abused." But Sen. Robert Menen- dez, D-N.J., who was pre- siding over a hearing on the border crisis on Thursday, rejected that idea. "I understand the desire to accelerate the process, but accelerating without due process is not accept- able," he said. Boehner's call to change the law underscored what is emerging as the Repub- lican price for supporting any part of the president's emergency spending re- quest. But stiffening Dem- ocratic opposition has left any solution unclear. A dispute also emerged at Thursday's hearing over whether the border cri- sis was caused in part by President Barack Obama's two-year-old policy allow- ing certain immigrants brought illegally to the country as children to stay and work here. Republicans are press- ing the argument that the Obama policy was a major driver of the spike in mi- gration by kids from El Sal- vador, Honduras and Gua- temala. Sen. Ted Cruz an- nounced Tuesday that he will use any legislation to deal with the crisis to try to overturn that directive — an indication that the politics around the issue are getting even tougher with less than three weeks left for Congress to address the problem be- fore leaving Washington for the annual August recess. Sen. James Risch, R- Idaho, tried to get Obama administration witnesses to acknowledge the crisis was caused in part by Obama's policy, holding up a chart showing migration spiking in 2012. "Are you telling me that his executive order that we're not going to send any children back didn't cause an explosion?" he asked. IMMIGRATION Boehner losing optimism on border legislation deal By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON A new fed- eral earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about one-third of the United States and low- ers it for one-tenth. The U.S. Geological Sur- vey on Thursday updated its national seismic haz- ard maps for the first time since 2008, taking into ac- count research from the devastating 2011 earth- quake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the sur- prise 2011 Virginia temblor. The maps are used for building codes and insur- ance purposes and they calculate just how much shaking an area probably will have in the biggest quake likely over a build- ing's lifetime. The highest risk places have a 2 percent chance of experiencing "very intense shaking" over a 50-year lifespan, USGS project chief Mark Petersen said. Those with lower hazard ratings would experience less in- tense swaying measured in gravitational force. "These maps are refining our views of what the ac- tual shaking is," Petersen said. "Almost any place in the United States can have an earthquake." Parts of 16 states have the highest risk for earth- quakes: Alaska, Hawaii, Cal- ifornia, Oregon, Washing- ton, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Mis- souri, Arkansas, Tennes- see, Illinois, Kentucky and South Carolina. With the update, new high-risk ar- eas were added to some of those states. Also, Colorado and Okla- homa saw increased risk in some parts and moved up to the second of the seven haz- ard classifications, he said. There are major faults and quake hazards along the entire west coast, with an increased concern in the Cascadia region around Or- egon. Southern Alaska, the big island of Hawaii, the Missouri-Tennessee-Arkan- sas-Illinois New Madrid fault area and Charleston round out the biggest haz- ard areas. But shaking hazards are nearly everywhere. Much of the country west of the Rockies, along with parts of Oklahoma and Tennessee and sec- tions of central Arkansas, northern Alabama, Geor- gia, South Carolina, Indi- ana, Illinois, Ohio, Mich- igan, Virginia, New York and New England saw an increase in shaking haz- ards for small buildings like houses. At the same time much of North Carolina, the northern tip of South Car- olina, patches of Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Nebraska, Arkan- sas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York saw hazard lev- els lower slightly. And us- ing a different type risk analysis for tall buildings the shaking hazard in New York City dropped ever so slightly, Petersen said. Petersen said the maps sidestep the issue of earth- quakes created by injec- tions of wastewater from oil and gas drilling in Okla- homa and other states, saying those extra quakes weren't included in the analysis. So far this year, nearly 250 small to me- dium quakes have hit Okla- homa. SEISMIC HAZARD Quake risk increased for one-third of US USGS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS This undated handout image provided by the US Geological Survey shows an updated federal earthquake risk map. A new map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about half of the US and lowers it for nearly a quarter of the nation. 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