Hamas accepts 18-month Gaza truce

CAIRO: Hamas has accepted an 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian media reported on Friday.

“We agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half,” Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu-Marzouk said in a statement, adding that Gaza’s six border crossings should be re-opened and the Jewish country must “stop military actions and aggressions in all forms”.

Marzouk also said Egypt will announce the result of the truce talks “within two days”, after contacting Israel and other Palestinian factions.

The breakthrough came Thursday after intensive talks between a Hamas delegation led by Marzouk and Egyptian intelligence chief and pointman for the truce talks, Omar Suleiman.

Egypt has been endeavoring to secure a lasting truce to replace the fragile ceasefire, declared Jan 18 separately by both Israel and Hamas movement, ending Israel’s 22-day massive assault in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Over 1,300 Palestinians were killed and 5,500 others wounded during the war, while 14 Israelis have died since the launch of the deadly offensive in Gaza Dec 27.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel to allow journalists into Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel will allow journalists free access to the war-battered Gaza Strip beginning on Friday, according to a statement from the defence ministry released on the fifth day of a ceasefire.

“From 23rd January, 2009, Erez crossing will resume to facilitate normal passage of journalists from Israel to the Gaza Strip,” said the statement, referring to a border crossing in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The crossing will be open all days except Saturday, it said.

Israel had barred journalists from Gaza during its 22-day war on the Hamas rulers of the enclave.

source : jang.com.pk

UN chief arrives in Gaza

EREZ BORDER CROSSING: UN chief Ban Ki-moon entered the war-battered Gaza Strip on Tuesday, AFP reporters at the scene said.

Ban’s convoy crossed the Erez border crossing into the Palestinian territory at around 1030 GMT, they said.

It was the first visit by an international leader to the coastal strip following Israel’s deadly 22-day offensive on the territory’s Hamas rulers and the first since the Islamists seized power in Gaza in June 2007.

source : jang.com.pk

Two mortar rounds fired from Gaza into Israel: army

JERUSALEM: Two mortar rounds were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday amid a fragile ceasefire between the Jewish state and Palestinian militant groups, an army spokeswoman told.

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Gaza truce takes hold; Israeli pullout begins

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas offered Israel an immediate weeklong truce Sunday, hours after Israel silenced its guns and grounded its aircraft, but the Islamic militant group conditioned long-term quiet on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory.

Israeli tanks rolled out of Gaza Sunday, and infantry soldiers walked across the border to Israel, their guns and packs slung over their shoulders.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would leave Gaza quickly if the cease-fire holds.

“We didn’t set out to conquer Gaza, we didn’t set out to control Gaza, we don’t want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as fast as possible,” Olmert said at a dinner with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

He also expressed sorrow over the deaths of civilians in Gaza, calling them “hostages of the Hamas murders” and vowed to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the territory.

Militant rockets peppered southern Israel ahead of the Palestinian truce offer, threatening to re-ignite three weeks of violence that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians — more than half of them civilians, Gaza officials said — and turned the streets of Hamas-ruled Gaza into battlegrounds.

In Gaza, Palestinians loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and ventured out to see what was left of their homes after Israel’s punishing air and ground assault. Bulldozers shoved aside rubble in Gaza City to clear a path for cars. Medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they recovered 100 bodies amid the debris.

Israel mounted the offensive three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, but despite the latest barrage, government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel’s cease-fire offer stood. Thirteen Israelis died during the offensive, including four killed by rocket fire.

At least a dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled back into Israel, with relieved crews waving “victory” signs with their fingers. Hundreds of soldiers, laden with equipment, walked through the rain. Some smiled, others looked weary, their faces smeared with war paint. Israeli flags poked out of their packs and were attached to the tops of radio antennas.

The Israeli army refused to say how many troops had withdrawn.

The Palestinian cease-fire was announced by military leaders in Gaza and in Damascus, Syria, the base of Gaza’s exiled Hamas leaders. They did not set a time, but it appeared to be effective immediately.

In Damascus, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’ deputy leader, told Syrian TV that the cease-fire would last a week to give Israel time to withdraw and open all Gaza border crossings to let humanitarian aid into the embattled seaside territory.

“We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy’s troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week,” Abu Marzouk said.

Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory and confined 1.4 million Palestinians to the tiny coastal strip. Egypt has also kept its border with Gaza largely sealed.

Militants did not back down from their demand that Israel ultimately open blockaded crossings, which serve as economic lifelines for Gaza.

The Hamas offer raised hopes that the cease-fire would stick more than a few hours. Militants had fired 17 rockets into Israel on Sunday, slightly injuring three people, police said, even as foreign leaders tried cement an end to the war in Egypt. Israel briefly retaliated against the rocket assaults with air and artillery strikes.

In Gaza City, the Shahadeh family was loading mattresses into the trunk of a car in Gaza City, preparing to return home to the hard-hit northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

“I’ve been told that the devils have left,” said Riyadh Shahadeh, referring to the Israelis. “I’m going back to see how I’m going to start again. I don’t know what happened to my house. … I am going back there with a heart full of fear because I am not sure if the area is secure or not, but I have no other option.”

In southern Israel, residents who have endured rocket attacks for eight years accused the government of stopping the offensive too soon. Israel declared the cease-fire before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims.

Schools in southern Israel had remained closed in anticipation of the rocket fire that was swift to come. Shortly before the rocket fire resumed, the head of a parents association in the town of Sderot faulted the government for not reaching an agreement directly with Hamas, which Israel shuns.

“It’s an offensive that ended without achieving its aims,” Batya Katar said. “All the weapons went through Egypt. What’s happened there?”

“The weapons will continue to come in through the tunnels and by sea,” she said.

Before Hamas made its cease-fire offer, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned militants not to attack: “This cease-fire is fragile and we must examine it minute by minute, hour by hour.”

The Israeli operation outraged the Muslim world, sparking dozens of demonstrations. On Sunday, Qatar announced that it had closed Israel’s trade office in the small Gulf Arab state and ordered its staff to leave within seven days.

Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state that has ties with Israel.

Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic — which holds the rotating European Union presidency — headed for Egypt to lend international backing to the cease-fire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon were also expected to attend.

Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. “Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority,” he said.

Israel said it was not sending a representative to the meeting. But Sunday evening, leaders from Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and France and the European Union were coming to Jerusalem for a working dinner with Olmert.

Hamas, shunned internationally as a terrorist organization, was not invited to the summit in Egypt. But the group has been mediating with Egypt, and any arrangement to open Gaza’s blockaded borders for trade would likely need Hamas’ acquiescence.

Abbas, too, echoed Hamas’ call for a total Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of bruising Israeli sanctions.

Israel’s cease-fire “is an important and necessary event but it’s insufficient,” said Abbas, Hamas’ bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories. “There should be a comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lifting of the siege and a reopening of crossings” to aid, he said, speaking from Egypt.

Under the truce plan, Hamas would not rearm, as militants did during a 6-month truce that preceded the war. In a step toward achieving those guarantees, Israel on Friday won a U.S. commitment to help crack down on weapons smuggling into Egypt and from there, to Gaza.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday that his country would not be bound by the agreement. Egypt’s cooperation is essential if the smuggling is to be stopped.

_____

Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza and Amy Teibel reported from Jerusalem. Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from Rafah, Gaza Strip.

source : news.yahoo.com

Israel unilaterally halts fire, rockets persist

JERUSALEM – Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday meant to end three devastating weeks of war against Hamas militants, but just hours later militants fired a volley of rockets into southern Israel, officials said, threatening to reignite the violence.

No one was injured in the assault in which five rockets were fired and four landed. But shortly afterward, security sources in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun reported an airstrike that wounded a woman and her child. The Israeli military had no comment.

In another incident after the truce took hold, militants fired small arms at an infantry patrol, which directed artillery and aircraft to strike back, the military said.

“Israel will only act in response to attacks by Hamas, either rockets into Israel or firing upon our forces,” government spokesman Mark Regev said. “If Hamas does deliberately torpedo this cease-fire, they are exposing themselves before the entire international community as a group of cynical extremists that have absolutely no interest in the well-being of the people of Gaza.”

Regev would not say what level of violence would provoke Israel to call off the truce.

The cease-fire went into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday local time after three weeks of fighting that killed some 1,200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. At least 13 Israelis also died, according to the government.

Israel stopped its offensive before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims. And Israel’s insistence on keeping soldiers in Gaza raised the prospect of a stalemate with the territory’s Hamas rulers, who have said they would not respect any truce until Israel pulls out.

The military warned in a statement early Sunday that Israeli forces would retaliate for attacks against soldiers or civilians and that “any such attack will be met with a harsh response.”

The cease-fire went into effect just days ahead of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration Tuesday. Outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration welcomed Israel’s decision and a summit set for later Sunday in Egypt is meant to give international backing to the truce.

Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic — which holds the rotating European Union presidency — are expected to attend along with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. “Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority,” he said, declaring that “the United Nations is ready to act.”

It was not immediately clear whether Israel would send a representative to the meeting in Egypt, and Hamas, shunned widely as a terrorist organization, has not been invited.

In announcing the truce late Saturday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would withhold fire after achieving its goals and more.

“Hamas was hit hard, in its military arms and in its government institutions. Its leaders are in hiding and many of its men have been killed,” Olmert said.

If Hamas holds its fire, the military “will weigh pulling out of Gaza at a time that befits us,” Olmert said. If not, Israel “will continue to act to defend our residents.”

Israel apparently reasons that the two-phase truce would give it ammunition against its international critics: Should Hamas continue to attack, then Israel would be able to resume its offensive after having tried to end it. It was not immediately clear how many rockets would have to fall to provoke an Israeli military response.

Hamas, which rejects Israel’s existence, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory of 1.4 million Palestinians. The Israeli war did not loosen Hamas’ grip on Gaza, and the group vowed that a unilateral cease-fire was not enough to end the Islamic movement’s resistance.

“The occupier must halt his fire immediately and withdraw from our land and lift his blockade and open all crossings and we will not accept any one Zionist soldier on our land, regardless of the price that it costs,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Israel kept its schools in southern Israel closed in anticipation of possible rocket barrages.

More moderate Palestinians also reacted with skepticism to Israel’s two-phase truce and called on world leaders attending the Egypt summit to press Israel to pull out its troops immediately.

“We had hoped that the Israeli announcement would be matched by total cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” said Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is Hamas’ bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories.

“I am afraid that the presence of the Israeli forces in Gaza means that the cease-fire will not stand,” he said.

____

Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza. Associated Press reporter Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from Rafah, Gaza Strip, and Edith M. Lederer from the United Nations

source : news.yahoo.com

Israel unilaterally halts fire, troops stay in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel unilaterally ceased fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday but kept its troops there, after a 22-day war meant to halt years of rocket fire on southern Israel, but whose vast scale of death and destruction provoked international outrage.

Israel stopped its offensive before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims. And Israel’s insistence on keeping soldiers in Gaza raised the prospect of a stalemate with the territory’s Hamas rulers, who have said they would not respect any truce until Israel pulls out.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel begins Gaza ceasefire: army

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military began observing a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory, an army spokesman said.

“Starting at 2:00 am (0000 GMT) we are holding our fire,” an Israeli army spokesman told media.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had earlier declared that Israel would call a halt to an offensive that has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, although he ordered troops to remain in the enclave and return fire if they came under attack.

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Israeli troops thrust deep into Gaza City

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting the compound on fire as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was in the area on a mission to end Israel’s devastating offensive against the territory’s Hamas rulers.

Ban expressed “outrage” over the bombing. He said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told him there had been a “grave mistake” and promised to pay extra attention to protecting U.N. installations.

Even as a top Israeli envoy went to Egypt to discuss a cease-fire proposal, the military pushed farther into Gaza in an apparent effort to step up pressure on Hamas. Ground forces thrust deep into a crowded neighborhood for the first time, sending terrified residents fleeing for cover. Shells also struck a hospital, five high-rise apartment buildings and a building housing media outlets in Gaza City, injuring several journalists.

Bullets also entered another building housing The Associated Press offices, entering a room where two staffers were working but wounding no one. The Foreign Press Association, representing journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, demanded a halt to attacks on press buildings.

The army has collected the locations of media organizations to avoid such attacks.

Israel launched its war on Dec. 27 in an effort to stop militant rocket fire from Gaza that has terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Some 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, roughly half of them civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian medical officials. Thirteen Israelis also have died. Israel says it will press ahead until it receives guarantees of a complete halt to rocket fire and an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza from neighboring Egypt.

Israeli envoy Amos Gilad traveled to Cairo on Thursday to discuss truce prospects with Egypt, which has been serving as the key mediator. Israel also sent a senior diplomat to Washington to discuss international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said there was “momentum” in negotiations and Israel was hopeful that a deal on its terms was “close and attainable.”

Barak, visiting soldiers on a southern base, said the fighting would continue, but Israel’s eyes were “also open to the possibility of winding up this operation and consummating Israel’s exceptional results and accomplishments through diplomacy.”

Ban, who arrived in Israel on Thursday morning from Egypt, said he was “outraged” by the attack on the U.N. headquarters.

“I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and foreign minister and demanded a full explanation,” Ban said. He said Barak told him there had been a “grave mistake” and promised to pay extra attention to protecting U.N. installations.

The U.N. compound in Gaza had only that morning become a makeshift shelter for hundreds of Gaza City residents seeking sanctuary from relentless Israeli shelling, a U.N. official in Gaza said.

“These were people who were scared. They rushed into the nearest U.N. facility,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he not authorized to talk to the media.

But shortly after, a shell hit the school, wounding three people, he said. Two other shells hit a warehouse housing humanitarian supplies and a U.N. parking lot, he added.

The U.N. compound houses the U.N. Works and Relief Agency, which distributes food aid to hundreds of thousands of destitute Gazans in the tiny seaside territory of 1.4 million people.

U.N. spokesmen confirmed that at least three people were wounded, but said the fire and smoke engulfing the compound made it impossible to know if it had been completely evacuated.

U.N. spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said the U.N. had given Israel the coordinates of the building, and the compound was also clearly marked with U.N. flags and logos. Large stocks of food and fuel used to supply hospital and water pumps was at risk of destruction, as were valuable U.N. archives dating back to 1948, Abu Hasna said.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Hours earlier, thousands of residents had fled their homes with the advance of Israeli ground troops into Gaza City’s Tel Hawwa neighborhood. Many were clad only in their pajamas, and some were wheeling elderly parents in wheelchairs, one of them with an oxygen tank. Others stopped journalists’ armored cars and ambulances pleading for someone to take them to a U.N. compound or to relatives’ homes.

Rasha Hassam, a 25-year-old engineer, ran out of her apartment building carrying her screaming, crying, 6-year-old daughter, Dunia.

“God help us, God help us, where can we flee?” she cried. “All I want is to get my poor child away from here. We want to survive.”

Thousands of others were trapped in Tel Hawwa’s high-rise buildings by the fire, too afraid to even attempt to flee.

Three shells hit the Al Quds hospital in the neighborhood, setting its pharmacy building ablaze, trapping about 400 patients and staff inside the main hospital building, said Khaled Abu Zeid, a medic inside the building reached on his mobile phone. Gunfire was also reported around the building. It was not clear how many people inside had been wounded in the fighting.

In the nearby downtown area, Israeli tanks fired shells at five high-rise buildings, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israeli defense officials said the intensified assault on Gaza City was not a prelude to a new phase of all-out urban warfare in the narrow alleyways of Gaza’s big cities, where Hamas militants are more familiar with the lay of the land and Israeli casualties would be liable to spiral. The aim, they said, was to heat up the pressure on Hamas to accede to Israel’s demands.

“I think Israel is seeking in the last moments to escalate the military operation to pressure the parties,” said Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official. “I don’t think this will change the issues on the table.”

The intensified assault on Gaza City highlighted the urgency of diplomatic efforts, the most high-profile being the arrival in the region of Ban, who was meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Thursday. Last week, the U.N. Security Council passed a cease-fire resolution that Hamas and Israel have ignored.

Ban met on Thursday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and afterward put the onus on the Israeli government.

“We have some elements now in place which may allow a cease fire to come fairly soon,” he told a news conference. “I hope so, but that depends on the political will of the Israeli government.”

He said a full-fledged truce agreement did not have to be worked out before violence ceased.

“You can discuss terms and conditions later, my demand is to cease firing immediately,” he said, acknowleging that he had come “with a heavy heart” at what he called a “difficult time for Israel.”

“I’m well aware that rockets have been fired at Israeli civilians for years from Gaza,” he said. “I have always condemned these as acts of terrorism and said they must cease.”

Rocket fire has fallen off dramatically but not ceased and on Thursday the military reported 14 firings.

Ban will also meet with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, where Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas governs. He will not visit Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since it expelled forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007. The international community does not recognize Hamas’ government.

Egypt has been pressing both sides to accept a 10-day truce while details of a more comprehensive accord can be worked out. Under the Egyptian proposal, Hamas would back off its demand that Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza and borders be opened immediately as part of any halt in fighting.

Instead, Israeli forces would remain in place during the 10-day period until details on border security are worked out, Egyptian and Palestinian officials close to the talks told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the closed-door negotiations.

A senior Israeli official said it was far from certain Israel would accept the deal. He said Israel was afraid Hamas would not respect a cease-fire as long as troops were in Gaza.

In Damascus, Hamas deputy chief Moussa Abou Marzouk told Al-Arabiya television that Hamas demands an immediate cease-fire, to be followed by Israeli troop withdrawal and the opening of the border for humanitarian aid.

A long-term truce would be discussed later, Marzouk said.

___

Barzak reported from Gaza City; Teibel from Jerusalem. Associated Press correspondents Salah Nasrawi and Sarah El Deeb contributed from Cairo.

source : jang.com.pk

Red Cross says Gaza humanitarian situation ’shocking’

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is “shocking”, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said after a visit to a hospital in the embattled territory.

“I saw this dramatic humanitarian situation. There’s an increasing number of women and children being wounded and going to hospitals,” Jakob Kellenberger told reporters in Jerusalem.

“It is shocking. It hurts when you see these wounded people and the types of wounds they have. And I think that in addition the number of people coming to these hospitals is increasing,” he said.

The Red Cross president called for improved access for ambulances inside Gaza seeking to recover the wounded and to rescue civilians sheltering from the fighting, saying Israel’s daily three-hour pause in operations is “not sufficient.”

“It is a positive step that you have a three-hour stop in the fighting, for doing humanitarian work, but it is not sufficient,” he said.

“Civilians who are being wounded, who are being trapped with problems of hunger, without water, you must be able to say that you can reach them.”

Kellenberger — who also visited the Israeli border town of Sderot, which has been hit by hundreds of Palestinian rockets since the war began — urged both sides in the conflict to differentiate between militants and civilians.

He said medical supplies are holding up in Gaza, where over 1,000 people have been killed in heavy fighting and aerial bombardments since the December 27 launch of the largest-ever Israeli offensive on the territory.

“In general (medics) did not complain about the lack of equipment or materials,” he said. “In fact there are a lot of goods coming in” although Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but humanitarian aid since the Hamas movement seized power in June 2007.

Kellenberger said he had seen “no evidence” of anyone wounded by phosphorous bombs, a weapon designed to deploy a smoke screen on the battlefield that Israel has been accused of using in civilian areas.

source : news.yahoo.com

Hamas nearing victory in Gaza conflict: PM Haniya

GAZA CITY: Hamas is nearing victory in its war against Israel, Ismail Haniya, the head of the Islamist movement’s government in the Gaza Strip, said on Monday.

“We are approaching victory,” he said in a televised address.

“The blood which has flowed will not have flowed in vain as it will bring us victory, thanks be to God,” Haniya added on the 17th day of Israel’s offensive which has so far killed more than 900 Palestinians.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli leader warns Hamas of ‘iron fist’

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stood within Hamas rocket range Monday and warned Islamic militants that they face an “iron fist” unless they agree to Israeli terms for an end to war in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas showed no signs of wavering, however, with its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, saying the militants were “closer to victory.”

Despite the tough words, Egypt said it was making slow progress in brokering a truce, and special Mideast envoy Tony Blair said elements were in place for a cease-fire.

As Olmert spoke in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, Israeli tanks, gunboats and warplanes hammered suspected hiding places of Hamas operatives who control the poor, densely populated territory just across the border.

After nightfall, flares and explosions lit up the sky over Gaza and heavy gunfire was heard in parts of the coastal territory of 1.4 million people.

Hamas’ fighters battled Israeli troops on the outskirts of Gaza City and launched 15 rockets at southern Israel. The group’s prime minister insisted on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the opening of blockaded border crossings as part of any truce.

“As we are in the middle of this crisis, we tell our people we, God willing, are closer to victory. All the blood that is being shed will not go to waste,” Haniyeh said on Hamas’ Al Aqsa television. But he said the group was also pursuing a diplomatic track to end the conflict that “will not close.”

Haniyeh sat a desk in a room with a Palestinian flag and a Quran in the background. His location was unclear; Israeli airstrikes have targeted militant chiefs, and most are in hiding.

The fighting began Dec. 27 and has killed more than 900 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian medical officials. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have been killed.

As diplomats struggled for traction in truce efforts, Olmert said Israel would only end military operations if Hamas stops rocketing Israel, as it has done for years, and is unable to rearm after combat subsides.

“Anything else will be met with the Israeli people’s iron fist,” Olmert said. “We will continue to strike with full strength, with full force until there is quiet and rearmament stops.”

A few hours before Olmert spoke, a rocket hit a house in Ashkelon but caused no casualties. Olmert addressed regional mayors in the relative safety of the basement of a public building during his two-hour visit; he has toured other towns hit by rockets since the war began.

Later, he tempered his tough talk, saying: “I really hope that the efforts we are making with the Egyptians these days will ripen to a result that will enable us to end the fighting.”

Ashkelon is 10 miles from the border with Gaza. The Israeli military says Hamas has Iranian-supplied rockets that can reach 25 miles into southern Israel.

Inside Gaza, an Israeli battalion commander identified only as Lt. Col. Yehuda said troops had not met significant resistance and had found several houses booby-trapped either with regular explosives, or by sealing the windows and doors and opening cooking gas valves.

“A couple of days ago, an armed squad popped up from a tunnel that was concealed by a nearby building. We took them out with tank fire and a bulldozer,” he said.

In another incident, the commander said, his men spotted a suicide bomber on a bicycle.

“He ran off to take cover in a building, presumably to draw us in,” Yehuda said. “We demolished the building on top of him with a bulldozer.”

Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg said troops were “tightening the encirclement” of Gaza City and were “constantly on the move.”

The comments by Yehuda and Eisenberg were approved by Israeli military censors. They spoke to a small group of reporters who accompanied Israeli units inside Gaza. Israeli forces have not allowed journalists to enter Gaza to cover the war.

Israeli warplanes pounded suspected Hamas positions in Gaza City, and navy gunboats fired at least 25 shells. Smoke billowed over buildings.

At least 20 Palestinians died Monday, some of them from wounds suffered on previous days, Gaza health officials said.

A girl, a doctor and a Hamas militant were killed in the northern Gaza Strip, said Basim Abu Wardeh, head of Kamal Adwan hospital.

The doctor rushed to evacuate the wounded from a building where two airstrikes had taken place and was killed by a third, Abu Wardeh said. Four other medics were injured, one critically.

The Israeli military said four soldiers were injured, one seriously, in what an initial inquiry concluded was a “friendly fire” incident in northern Gaza.

Israel has sent reserve units into Gaza to help thousands of ground forces already in the territory, and fighting has persisted despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire. Egypt has assumed a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Talks “are progressing slowly but surely because each party wants to score some points,” Hossam Zaki, the spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, told the British Broadcasting Corp. “We would like to be able to bridge some gaps and then proceed immediately to a cease-fire.”

Zaki, however, said Egypt could not provide certain guarantees that Israelis seek, such as a halt to rocket fire.

“We’ll enhance our efforts, but this is not an issue between Israel and Egypt,” Zaki told the BBC. “It is an issue between Israel and Gaza, and this is something that will have to be worked out, as the (U.N.) Security Council says, in Gaza.”

Much of the diplomacy focuses on an area of southern Gaza just across the Egyptian border known as the Philadelphi corridor that serves as a weapons smuggling route, making Egypt critical to both sides in any deal. The name of the corridor is an Israel military label.

Israel wants those routes sealed and monitored as part of any peace deal, and has been bombing tunnels that run under that border.

“I think the elements of an agreement for the immediate cease-fire are there,” Blair said in Cairo. He added that, while more work needed to be done, he hoped to see a cease-fire “in the coming days.”

Israeli Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad planned to travel Tuesday to Egypt for talks.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said European military observers should be sent to Gaza to monitor any eventual cease-fire.

Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, said the fighting was “difficult and complex” and that Hamas militants were setting boobytraps and firing missiles from the rooftops of civilian homes.

“There is a whole city built underground in Gaza. Lots of big weapons warehouses,” Benayahu said. Soldiers also uncovered a tunnel dug inside Gaza that led 300 yards into Israel, he said.

In Monday’s fighting, the army said it carried out more than 25 airstrikes, hitting squads of gunmen, mortar launchers and two vehicles carrying Hamas militants.

It said ground troops came under fire from militants in a mosque. An Israeli aircraft attacked the squad, and Israeli troops then took over the mosque, confiscating rockets and mortar shells.

With Israeli troops surrounding Gaza’s main population centers, Israeli leaders have said the operation is close to achieving its goals. Security officials say they have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, including top commanders, but there has been no way to confirm the claims.

Aid agencies said they have resumed relief operations in Gaza, but fighting still prevents them from evacuating the sickest people and reaching all those who need help.

The international Red Cross said it brought in seven truckloads of medical supplies and would distribute them to hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of patients.

International aid groups, however, say Israel is not doing enough to protect Palestinian civilians as well as aid workers. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and many basic food items are no longer available, the office of the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator said.

As many 88 percent of Gaza’s residents now require food aid, up from 80 percent before the war, said Helene Gayle, president of the international aid agency CARE.

The three-hour lull in fighting that Israel allows for humanitarian aid to move around Gaza is not sufficient, she said.

___

Barzak reported from Gaza City; Torchia from Jerusalem. Carley Petesch in New York and Eliane Engeler contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

UN truck comes under deadly fire in Gaza

JERUSALEM – The U.N. suspended aid shipments in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and the Red Cross restricted its convoys after their trucks came under Israeli fire. The threat of a wider conflict arose when militants in Lebanon fired two rockets into northern Israel.

One rocket crashed into a retirement home, but there were no serious injuries. Israel responded with mortar shells.

The driver of the U.N. truck died immediately; another worker in the truck died later of his wounds. The truck, which came under fire in northern Gaza, was marked with the U.N. flag and insignia.

During a three-hour pause in the fighting to allow in food and fuel and let medics collect the dead, nearly three dozen bodies were found beneath the rubble of bombed out buildings in Gaza City.

Many of the dead were in the same neighborhood where the international Red Cross said rescuers discovered young children too weak to stand who had stayed by their dead mothers. The aid group accused Israel of an “unacceptable” delay in allowing workers to reach the area.

Relations between Israel and humanitarian organizations have grown increasingly tense as civilian casualties have mounted.

The United Nations demanded an inquiry this week after Israeli shells killed nearly 40 Palestinians near a U.N. school filled with Gazans. Israel said militants had launched an attack from the area, then ran into a crowd of civilians for cover.

The 13-day Israeli offensive has killed about 750 Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials and human rights workers. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat Thursday, raising the number of soldiers killed in Gaza to eight since the assault began Dec. 27. Four Israelis, including one soldier, also have been killed by rockets fired at Israeli cities.

“We’ve been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed,” said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness, announcing the suspension. The U.N. is the largest aid provider in Gaza.

Israeli police, meanwhile, said militants in the Gaza Strip fired 24 rockets into Israel on Thursday, injuring four people, one of them seriously. Militants fired larger numbers of rockets in the early days of the conflict.

The Israeli assault is intended to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. But with roughly half the Palestinian dead believed to be civilians, international efforts to broker a cease-fire have been gaining steam.

Israeli envoys traveled to Egypt on Thursday to discuss the proposal being brokered by France and Egypt.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said any time lost will play into the hands of those who want war.

“The weapons must go quiet, the escalation must stop, Israel must obtain security guarantees and leave Gaza,” he said in Paris.

The U.N. provides food aid to around 750,000 Gaza residents — about half of Gaza’s population — and runs dozens of schools and clinics throughout the territory. They have some 9,000 local staffers in Gaza as well as a small team of international staffers.

Elena Mancusi Materi, UNRWA’s spokeswoman in Geneva, said the suspension concerned all truck movement in Gaza.

“If someone comes to one of our food distribution centers, we will give that person food,” she said. “If people come to our clinics with injuries, we will treat them.”

For a second straight day, Israel suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to allow in humanitarian supplies. Shortly before the pause took effect, the U.N. said one of its aid trucks came under fire from a gunner on an Israeli tank, killing the driver.

U.N. spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said the U.N. coordinated the delivery in northern Gaza with Israel, and the vehicle was marked with a U.N. flag and insignia. The Israeli army said it was investigating.

Hasna said the truck driver died immediately and another man in the truck died later of his wounds. A third man was also injured.

In Geneva, the international Red Cross said it would restrict its aid operations to Gaza City for at least one day after one of its convoys came under Israeli fire at the Netzarim crossing during the pause in fighting Thursday. One driver was lightly injured.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry said 35 bodies were discovered Thursday during the three-hour lull in several areas around Gaza City that have seen fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

He said it was unclear how many militants were killed because the remains were in poor condition, but that women and children were among the dead. Hassanain said 746 Palestinians have died in the Israeli offensive.

Many of the dead found Thursday were in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, where the international Red Cross said it found four small children alive next to their mothers’ bodies in the rubble of a home hit by Israeli shelling. The aid group says 15 dead were recovered from two houses in Zeitoun on Wednesday.

A Red Cross spokesman says rescuers had been refused permission by Israeli forces to reach the site for four days. It said the delay was “unacceptable.”

The Red Cross statement was a rare public criticism from the aid group, which normally conducts confidential negotiations with warring parties.

The Israeli military said in a statement that Hamas militants used Palestinian civilians as human shields, and that Israeli forces work closely with aid groups to help civilians in Gaza.

In other Gaza violence, Israel attacks killed at least 24 Palestinians Thursday, including the U.N. driver, according to Hassanain.

The rockets from Lebanon raised the specter of renewed hostilities on Israel’s northern frontier, 2 1/2 years after Israel battled the Hezbollah guerrilla group to a 34-day stalemate. War broke out between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 as Israel battled Palestinian militants in Gaza, on Israel’s southern borders.

No group claimed responsibility. Lebanon’s government condemned the attack, and Hezbollah — which is now part of Lebanon’s government — denied any responsibility for the rocket fire, which lightly injured two Israelis at a retirement home.

“The rocket entered through the roof, hurling the water heaters into the air. It went through bedrooms upstairs and then into the kitchen,” said Henry Carmelli, the home’s manager.

Israel has repeatedly said it was prepared for a possible attack on the north since it launched its campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza. Israel has mobilized thousands of reserve troops for such a scenario, and leaders have warned Hezbollah of dire consequences if it enters the fighting.

“We are prepared and will respond as necessary,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

The Israeli offensive has reduced Palestinian rocket fire, but not stopped it. Several barrages were reported Thursday, including one strike that damaged a school and sports center in the southern city of Ashkelon, police said. Both buildings were empty.

For Israel to accept a proposed cease-fire deal, “there has to be a total and complete cessation of all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel, and … we have to see an arms embargo on Hamas that will receive international support,” said government spokesman Mark Regev.

Hamas said it would not accept a truce deal unless it includes an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza — something Israel says it is not willing to do. Israel and Egypt have maintained a stiff economic embargo on Gaza since the Hamas takeover in June 2007.

The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza — territories on opposite sides of Israel that are supposed to make up a future Palestinian state.

___

Weizman reported from Jerusalem and Barzak from Gaza City. Associated Press writer Sam F. Ghattas contributed to this report from Beirut, Lebanon.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Egypt awaits Israeli response to truce talks call

CAIRO: Egypt was on Wednesday awaiting a response from Israel to an invitation from President Hosni Mubarak to come and immediately negotiate an agreement aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel said it would stop bombing the Gaza Strip for three hours a day from Wednesday, after the plan was floated late Tuesday by Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy following a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was holding a security cabinet meeting on Wednesday but had not yet decided whether he would accept Mubarak’s invitation, his spokesman said.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said his country was studying the Egyptian plan but warned that “paper alone cannot change the situation.” “We have now the general idea. We have to look to the details because unfortunately it depends how it is going to be organised. Paper alone cannot change the situation,” Peres told Britain’s Sky News television.

source : jang.com.pk

Hezbollah chief warns Israel, Arab mediators

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader stepped up his anti-Israeli rhetoric on Wednesday, warning Israel that it can’t destroy the Palestinian Hamas and that it would be “crushed’” should it attack Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah’s speech, broadcast on Arab televisions, could stoke tension on Israel’s northern border. Nasrallah also chastised “Arab leaders” for trying to mediate a truce between Palestinian Hamas and Israel, instead of siding with the embattled Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

That was an apparent swipe at Egypt, which on Tuesday together with France made proposals to end the fighting. The plan calls for a cease-fire for a limited period of time designed to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, an urgent meeting between both Israel and the Palestinians to discuss ways to prevent further military action and reasons for the conflict, including lifting the blockade of Gaza.

Nasrallah accused Israel of seeking to liquidate the Palestinian cause and urged his supporters to be on alert. He said Hezbollah should be ready for anything and will not be cowered.

“We are here, ready for every possibility and prepared for any aggression,” he said. “We will not weaken, fear or surrender.” Hezbollah has thousands of rockets and trained fighters but has so far held back its fire.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza’s costal areas, casualties feared

GAZA: Israeli warplanes carried out fresh raids on coastal belt of Gaza on Tuesday.

According to reports, Israeli warplanes had pounded coastal areas following which smoke could be seen about the targeted areas. Casualties are feared in the bombardment.

130 Hamas fighters killed in ground offensive: Israel

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that it had killed 130 Hamas fighters since launching a ground offensive in Gaza at the weekend.

“In the last two days at least 130 Hamas terror operatives were killed in battles with IDF ground forces in the Gaza Strip,” an army spokesman said. The claim could not be immediately verified.

Six Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks roll into Khan Yunis

GAZA CITY: Israeli tanks rolled into Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, just before dawn on Tuesday, foreign news agency reported.

The tanks, supported by helicopter gunships, were firing heavy machine guns and cannons, and were being met by return fire from Hamas and other groups, the sources added.

Meanwhile, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli tank fire in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah on Tuesday morning, medics and witnesses said.

The victims were all in a house that was hit by a tank shell and appear to have been civilians caught in heavy shelling of the town that has continued all night.

Separately, four Palestinians were wounded by an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, medics and witnesses said, without providing further details.

Israeli tank shell fired in error during fighting in the Gaza Strip killed three Israeli soldiers, the military said on Tuesday. A total of four soldiers have been killed since Israel launched a ground assault against the enclave’s Hamas rulers on Saturday.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli tanks roll into Khan Yunis

GAZA CITY: Israeli tanks rolled into Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, just before dawn on Tuesday, witnesses said.

The tanks, supported by helicopter gunships, were firing heavy machine guns and cannons, and were being met by return fire from Hamas and other groups, the sources added.

The incursion into the eastern district of Abassan was the first time Israeli forces have entered the Hamas stronghold since ground forces invaded the territory after nightfall on Saturday.

source : jang.com.pk

Saudi king raps world leaders for condoning Israeli attacks

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia Monday blasted the international community for condoning the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, a statement on a news agency said.

“The international community remains silent, and is failing in an unprecedented manner to deal with the Israeli violations,” said the statement issued following the cabinet’s weekly meeting led by King Abdullah.

“The brutal war Israel is waging on the Gaza Strip, the mass punishment and the attacks on unarmed civilians go against all principles of humanity,” the statement added.

The government blamed Israel’s actions on “ideological beliefs of extremist political parties in Israel and abroad” and stressed it wants concrete steps instead of words from the Arab world to deal with the crisis.

“The kingdom will also be at the forefront of any Arab or Islamic joint action to deal with the current destructive crisis as long as it enjoys elements of agreement, credibility and viability that go beyond closing with communiques that will be added to previous ones,” it said.

Qatar has been pushing for an extraordinary summit of Arab leaders on Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but the Saudis have remained cool to the idea.

Riyadh also renewed its calls on Palestinian leaders to put aside their rivalry and to realize the dangers their division is causing.

“There is no way for a unified and effective Arab-Islamic action without the unity, uniformity and integrity” of the Palestinians, the statement said.

It appealed to the Palestinian factions “to overcome their disagreements, seek unity among themselves and be aware of the imminent dangers caused by their division.”

The two main Palestinian parties, Hamas, which is Israel’s prime target in Gaza, and the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have been locked in a political stalemate since June 2007 when Hamas routed Fatah from Gaza in violent fighting.

At least 555 Palestinians have been killed and over 2,700 wounded since Israel unleashed its massive offensive on December 27 to halt Hamas rocket.

source : jang.com.pk