Israel orders brief halt, then Gaza fight resumes

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Israel orders brief halt, then Gaza fight resumes
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MATTI FRIEDMAN


GAZA CITY, Gaza – Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets resumed after a brief pause Wednesday to allow food and fuel to reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where an Israeli warplane dropped leaflets urging some residents to flee because of imminent attacks.

Even as the Israeli government tentatively welcomed a cease-fire proposal from Egypt and France, its military was instructed to continue its assault on Hamas.

The proposal could mark the first sign of a possible exit from 12 days of bloodshed in Gaza. But Israel says it needs guarantees that any cease-fire will halt rocket fire and prevent Hamas from rearming, while Hamas demands that Gaza's blockaded border crossings be opened.

Israeli strikes in response to continued Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel have killed at least 688 Palestinians since Dec. 27, including around 350 civilians, among them 130 children, according to Palestinian officials.

Israel says it has killed at least 130 Gaza militants since it launched its ground offensive Saturday. Ten Israelis have been killed since the fighting began, including three civilians.

On Wednesday, 29 Palestinians were killed, including at least 22 civilians and two Islamic Jihad militants, medics said. In one incident, a family of four was killed in an airstrike on their car, medics said.

Residents on the Gaza-Egypt border said Israel dropped leaflets in the area, urging them to flee because of planned Israel strikes. Hamas has weapons smuggling tunnels in the area, and Israel has already destroyed dozens of them in airstrikes.

"Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF will attack the area, between the Egyptian border until the beach road," the leaflet said, according a local U.N. official.

After the leaflets were dropped, more than 800 families in the strip of neighborhoods that run parallel to the Egypt border fled to two U.N. schools turned into temporary shelters.

With the renewed fighting Wednesday, a truce deal still seemed distant. There are also wide gaps between the demands raised by Israel and Hamas.

Still, Israel was to send an envoy, senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, to Cairo on Thursday to hear more about the French-Egyptian truce proposal, whose terms still remain unclear.

The plan calls for an immediate cease-fire for a limited period to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. It also calls for an urgent meeting of Israel and the Palestinian side on arrangements to prevent any repetition of military action and to deal with the causes.

In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Israel and the moderate Palestinian Authority, Hamas' rival, accepted the plan. However, the Palestinian Authority is not a direct party to the conflict.

Turkey has already been asked to put together an international force in Gaza, according to a Mideastern diplomat familiar with the country's efforts to end the conflict. He said the responsibilities of the force were yet to be determined. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, and Turkish officials would not immediately comment.

Hamas and Israel voiced reservations, and the Bush administration also withheld firm backing. "What we are seeking is a cease-fire that would actually last," said White House press secretary Dana Perino.

At a news conference, President-elect Barack Obama deferred to President George W. Bush on the Gaza conflict. Obama has insisted that he would allow the current chief executive to deal with foreign policy matters until the Jan. 20 inauguration.

"We can't have two administrations running foreign policy at the same time. We simply can't do it," Obama said. "The silence is not as a consequence of a lack of concern. In fact, it's not silence. ... I've explained very clearly what institutional constraints I'm under when it comes to this issue."

Israel briefly suspended its offensive Wednesday to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza, and Israeli officials said such lulls would be declared on a regular basis, depending on security.

The pause in fighting came amid growing warnings by the World Bank and aid groups of a humanitarian crisis. The Word Bank said there is a severe shortage of drinking water and that the sewage system is under growing strain.

During Wednesday's lull, Israel allowed in 80 trucks of supplies from various donors as well as industrial fuel for Gaza's power plant. Medics tried to retrieve bodies in areas that had previously been too dangerous to approach.

Medic Mohammed Azayzeh in central Gaza pulled out three people, killed by shrapnel fire Sunday, from the border town of Mughraqa, where Israeli tanks had settled nearby.

The medic said he also found a dead family of three, including a father cradling a 1-year-old boy.

Ambulance sirens wailed as drivers rushed to the border crossing with Egypt to evacuate the wounded during relative drop in violence.

Despite the new cease-fire efforts, Israel's security Cabinet decided Wednesday to push ahead with the offensive, according to participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to discuss the content of such meetings.

The military has called up thousands of reserve troops that it could use to expand the Gaza offensive, supporting the three brigade-size formations of regular troops now inside.

Defense officials said the troops could be ready for action by Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the army's preparations are classified.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon close to the group's leadership in Syria, told Al-Jazeera television that Hamas will reject any initiative that does not include the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and the opening of all of the territory's border crossings.

"Any proposal that does not include these bases is unacceptable and no one should bother by presenting such proposals," he said.

"The idea of an international force is rejected and such forces which will come to Gaza to protect Israel will be dealt with as enemy forces," he said.

Israel carried out 40 airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday, the army said. An Israeli combat officer, identified as Lt. Col. Amir, said troops neutralized hundreds of explosives devices, including booby-trapped houses, and discovered many tunnels dug by militants.

Despite the army's push, Gaza militants fired 14 rockets Wednesday, including hits on the towns of Beersheba and Ashkelon.

Rocket fire has fallen off somewhat as Israeli troops tighten their hold on Gaza, taking over open areas used to launch rockets, but Gaza residents say militants are still launching from heavily populated areas.
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Friedman reported from Jerusalem.