Israel announced on Thursday that they will begin a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip area in order to make things safer for Israeli residents.

With cease-fire talks failing to get anywhere, the Israeli military said in a statement that they will aim for tunnels in the area and "establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror."

According to The New York Times, the ground invasion comes a day after four Palestinian children were killed by airstrikes and rockets continue to be fired in the direction of central and southern Israel.

Three more Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces just hours after they initially held back on responding to rocket strikes.

The move to target tunnels is likely a result of an early attempted attack by 13 Palestinian militants who surfaced out of tunnel, only to be stopped by Israeli forces.

BBC News reports that the Israel Defense forces say they hope the ground offensive will help deal a "significant blow to Hamas."

Ahead of the ground invasion, which is an expansion of Operation Protective Edge, Palestinian Maan news agency said that Israeli planes and artillery were hammering Gaza with strikes.

During the 10-day-old operation, more than 230 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in comparison to one Israeli.