Israel Air Strikes On Gaza Kill 155

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Hamas Rejects Gaza Cease-Fire
France Says Israel Accepts Egyptian-French Plan, But Hamas Tells CBS News Deal Does Not Ensure Open Borders Or End Blockade

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...l?tag=topStory

1/7/2009

(CBS/AP) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that Israel had accepted an Egyptian-French cease-fire plan for the Gaza Strip, but Hamas officials in Syria told CBS News that they could not agree to the plan because it does not guarantee open border crossings or an end to a crippling blockade.

Nicolas Sarkozy said the Palestinian Authority, which has not had any control in the Strip for more than a year, also agreed to the plan that was offered up by the French and Egyptian foreign ministers at the United Nations Tuesday night.

Sarkozy said he "strongly welcomed the acceptance by Israel and the Palestinian Authority of the French-Egyptian plan presented yesterday by (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak."

However, Israel said it would support the proposal only if it halts "hostile fire" from Hamas in Gaza and includes measures to prevent the militant group from re-arming, said government spokesman Mark Regev.

Sarkozy's spokesman, Franck Louvrier, was also more cautious, saying the French president's statement was "a reaction to the fact that, according to contacts with different interlocutors, they would accept the plan introduced yesterday as a departure point for discussion, which would allow a renewal of dialogue."

In Syria, a spokesman for Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told CBS News' George Baghdadi soon after Sarkozy's comments were made public that the militant group did not accept the terms of the Egyptian-French plan.

Spokesman Abu Omar said Hamas could only agree to a plan which guaranteed to end the economic blockade and to reopen the border crossings as soon as hostilities on both sides were halted; what he called a "complete package."

The Egyptian plan calls for Hamas to stop firing rockets and Israel to stop its military campaign simultaneously - which Hamas is amenable to - but it then states both sides should sit down to discuss further measures to be taken, such as the border crossings and the blockade.

Israel has no direct contacts with Hamas, but Mashaal indicated earlier Wednesday for the first time an apparent willingness to "contribute in reaching a solution to stop the aggression in Gaza."

For any plan to be implemented, Israel would likely demand an absolute guarantee from Hamas that all rocket attacks on southern Israel from the tiny Palestinian territory would stop, and the group would not be permitted to re-arm itself.

About 300 of the more than 670 Palestinians killed in the Israeli operation by Wednesday were civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. figures. Of those killed, at least 130 were children age 16 and under, said the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which tracks casualties.

Under intense pressure from the international community and non-profit aid organizations, Israel said earlier Wednesday it would stop its aerial and ground assault on Hamas targets for three-hour periods each day. The Israeli military was in the middle of its first three-hour cessation of fire when news broke about the government apparently accepting the French-Egyptian plan.

Artillery fire resumed later Wednesday.

The brief cease-fire windows were meant to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid to the roughly 1.5 million besieged residents of the Gaza Strip, but Israel warned it would resume attacks if it detected an imminent threat from Hamas rockets.

Trucks full of food, water, medical supplies and fuel started moving after waiting for weeks on Israel's side of the Gaza border. The Israeli government says it should be safe for them to travel on a designated route, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

However, just getting aid into Gaza won't solve the huge humanitarian problems. Roads are bombed and blocked, reports Roth and it's still a battle zone full of hazards for people delivering the aid and the people who need it.

John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, welcomed the short window as, "the first step," but said it was not a solution.

"It will be three hours out of 24 hours," Ging told the British Broadcasting Corp., "We will be able to do what we can do in three hours."

"A million people have no electricity ... Everybody is short of food," he added.

Even as Israel weighed its options over Tuesday night, it moved ahead with its attempts to forcefully stomp out militant rocket fire in Gaza.

Israel said it struck 40 Hamas targets in the cover of night. Gaza officials said one morning airstrike killed four people, and heavy gunfire bellowed in a neighborhood east of Gaza City.

Only five of the 75 Palestinians killed Tuesday were confirmed militants, and the United Nations called for an investigation into the growing civilian casualties after Israeli shelling killed 42 people at a school being operated as a shelter by a U.N. refugee agency.

That agency said Wednesday it was certain that Hamas militants were not using its school to attack Israeli troops. Israel has said militants fired mortar shells at its troops from outside the school, drawing return fire.

Christopher Guinness of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said Wednesday, "UNWRA is 99.9 percent certain there were no militants or military activity in its school."

That does not necessarily contradict Israel's claim that the militants were operating close by. Guinness said the agency wants an impartial investigation of witnesses, Israeli military photographs or any other evidence.

Palestinians who witnessed the attack near the school have reported seeing militants flee the scene, into the civilian population, after the first of about five shells hit.

The rising civilian death toll in Israel's campaign in Gaza highlights the pitfalls of Israel's powerful army using lethal force against often invisible Hamas guerrillas taking cover among civilians.

The images of maimed or bloodied Palestinian civilians, including children, was likely to heighten international pressure on Israel to abort the offensive before it has obtained its main objective - hitting Hamas hard so it will halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns.

In Israel's campaign against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in 1996, errant Israeli artillery shells killed 91 Lebanese civilians at a U.N. base near the village of Qana, turning initial international support for the operation into harsh criticism. In 2006, Israeli shells killed 18 Palestinians in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

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Israel approves tougher war on Hamas

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Israel...amas_0107.html

1/7/2009

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombardments of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700.

After a brief lull to allow Gaza's beleaguered population to hunt for food and fuel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was given the green light by the security cabinet to order a deeper offensive into Gaza towns as part of the campaign to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks.

But Barak has also decided to send an envoy to Cairo on Thursday to get details on an Egyptian ceasefire plan, which secured widespread international backing amid mounting concern about the scale of the civilian casualties.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped the talks would "lead to conditions which will allow" the end of the Israeli offensive which began on December 27 and has so far killed 702 Palestinians and wounded 3,100, Gaza medics say.

Olmert chaired the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem which "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas," a senior defence official said.

The final decision will be left with Barak, the official added.

Israeli shelling and air attacks around Gaza City were halted for three hours as a humanitarian gesture. Hamas also halted rocket attacks.

People and cars quickly filled the streets of Gaza City and long queues formed outside bakeries which soon ran out of bread. Aid groups sent dozens of truckloads of food and fuel across the border during the truce.

But the fighting equally quickly resumed, inflicting new deaths. A man and his three sons and a nephew were killed in one attack at the Jabaliya refugee camp, according to Gaza medics.

Israel also warned thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses or face air strikes.

"You have until 8:00am (0600 GMT)" on Thursday, said leaflets which were dropped by the Israeli military.

The area around Rafah is criss-crossed by what the Israeli army estimates to be some 300 tunnels and what local residents have told AFP is 500 subterranean passages from Gaza into Egypt.

The tunnels are used to smuggle supplies and arms into Gaza, an impoverished enclave that Israel has virtually locked down since Hamas seized power in June 2007.

Putting a halt to the smuggling is a key element of the ceasefire plan proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The proposal calls for an "immediate ceasefire," Israeli-Palestinian talks in Egypt on securing Gaza's borders, reopening border crossings and possible Palestinian reconciliation talks under Egyptian mediation.

Egypt has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to open a humanitarian corridor from its border with Gaza for aid and evacuating the wounded, the foreign ministry in Cairo said.

The Hamas leadership announced it was studying the plan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was set to go to Cairo for talks.

The United States signalled it was open to the idea of a ceasefire but the White House said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was clarifying details of the Egyptian plan.

Russia's top Middle East envoy met exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Wednesday. A Russian foreign ministry statement said Meshaal declared himself ready to take part in a "political-diplomatic solution" but that "the imposition of capitulatory conditions by Israel was unacceptable."

The Israeli government has faced mounting international criticism over its offensive, its deadliest ever in Gaza.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican's justice and peace minister, was quoted by the online Italian daily Il Sussidiario as saying Gaza had been turned into a "big concentration camp" by two weeks of Israeli bombardments.

Israel responded by saying the comments were "based on Hamas propaganda."

Hundreds of Hamas rockets fired into Israel over the past 12 days have killed four people and wounded dozens. Six Israeli soldiers have also been killed in combat.

Israel was also slammed by the United Nations which expressed outrage and demanded an independent investigation after military strikes on three UN-run schools in Gaza on Tuesday killed 48 people.

Forty-three people were killed in the deadliest strike at Jabaliya. The army said its investigation found militants had fired at Israeli forces from inside the school and Hamas militants were among those killed.

The United Nations denied this.

"Following an initial investigation, we are 99.9 percent sure that there were no militants or militant activities in the school and the school compound," Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, told AFP.

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Vatican official: Gaza is now a 'concentration camp'

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Vatica...camp_0107.html

Agence France-Presse
Published: Wednesday January 7, 2009

THE Gaza Strip has been turned into a "concentration camp" by two weeks of Israeli bombardments, said a senior Vatican official.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican's justice and peace minister, was quoted by the online Italian daily Il Sussidiario.

"Let's look at the conditions in Gaza: these increasingly resemble a big concentration camp," said Cardinal Martino.

Cardinal Martino said it was in neither parties interest to carry on fighting and urged both to show more willingness to hold peace talks.

"If they can't come to an agreement, then someone else should do it (for them). The world cannot sit back and watch without doing anything.

"We Christians are not the only ones to call this land 'holy', Jews and Muslims do so too. The fact that this land is the scene of bloodshed seems a great tragedy," he added.

Israel's offensive on Gaza has killed almost 700 Palestinians, including 220 children, and injured 3000 since December 27, according to Gaza medics.

Aid agencies have declared a total humanitarian crisis in Gaza, owing to the ailing stocks of basic food, water and medical supplies.

In response Israel said the comments were "based on Hamas propaganda".

"Making remarks that seem to be based on Hamas propaganda while ignoring its numerous crimes ... does not bring the people closer to truth and peace," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.

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Attack on Israel from Lebanon threatens 2nd front

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...PRq3gD95ITPBO0

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN – 4 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Lebanese militants fired rockets into northern Israel early Thursday, threatening to open a new front for the Jewish state as it pushed forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Two people were lightly injured, and the rockets on Israel's north raised the specter of renewed hostilities with Hezbollah, just 2 1/2 years after Israel battled the guerrilla group to a 34-day stalemate. Hezbollah started the 2006 war as Israel was battling Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Lebanon's government, wary of conflict, quickly condemned the rocket fire and said it was trying to determine who was behind the attack. Israel fired mortar shells into southern Lebanon in response.

In new Gaza fighting, Israel killed at five people, including four militants, raising the death toll from its 13-day offensive to nearly 700, according to Palestinian medical officials. With roughly half the dead believed to be civilians, international efforts to broker a cease-fire have been gaining steam.

Later Thursday, Israel said it would halt military action for three hours to allow Gaza residents to stock up on supplies. The lull would enable humanitarian groups to do their work, and Israel would send aid and fuel into the territory, said Israeli military official Peter Lerner.

One of the Lebanese rockets went through the roof of a retirement home in Nahariya, about five miles from the border, and exploded in the kitchen as some 25 residents were eating breakfast in the adjacent dining hall. One resident suffered a broken leg, another bruises, apparently from slipping on the floor after emergency sprinklers came on.

"The rocket entered through the roof, hurling the water heaters into the air. It went through bedrooms upstairs and then into the kitchen. There was a serious blast," said Henry Carmelli, the home's manager.

About three hours later, air-raid sirens went off again. Residents in two northern towns reported explosions of incoming rockets, though some reports suggested there had been a false alarm. Police said they were searching for the fallen projectiles.

Israel has repeatedly said it was prepared for a possible attack on the north since it launched its bruising campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza on Dec. 27. Israel has mobilized thousands of reserve troops for such a scenario, and leaders have warned Hezbollah of dire consequences if it enters the fighting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket attacks. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora condemned both the attacks and Israel's retaliatory fire, saying the attackers were trying to undermine stability.

Hezbollah, which did not comment, has said it does not want to draw Lebanon into a new war. Small Palestinian groups, who have rocketed Israel twice since the end of the 2006 war, have recently threatened to open a new front against Israel if the fighting in Gaza continued.

An Israeli Cabinet minister, Meir Sheetrit, suggested that Lebanese splinter groups, not Hezbollah, were responsible. He said the government had no interest in renewing hostilities.

"Even though we have the ability to respond with great force, the response needs to be carefully considered and responsible," Sheetrit told Army Radio. "We don't need to play into their hands."

Shortly after the first rockets fell around the town of Nahariya, five miles south of the Lebanese border, Lebanese TV stations reported Israeli mortar fire on open areas in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out "pinpoint fire" in response without elaborating.

Israeli defense commentators said they expected the incident to be a one-time show of solidarity with the Palestinians, not a declaration of war. Still, police said public bomb shelters throughout the north were opened.

Earlier, Palestinians reported some two dozen airstrikes around Gaza City before dawn. One militant was killed and 10 wounded.

An airstrike in northern Gaza killed three members of a rocket-launching cell, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack took place about 150 yards from a hospital and wounded 12 bystanders. The Israeli army has repeatedly said militants use civilian areas for cover.

Also, there were clashes between Israeli armored forces and Hamas militants in southern Gaza.

Israel had resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt after Hamas responded with a rocket barrage. Israeli planes destroyed at least 16 empty houses.

The tunnels are Hamas' lifeline, used to bring in arms, money and basic goods. Israel says local homes are used to conceal the tunnels.

Israeli warplanes bombed the border area after leaflets were dropped warning residents to leave. More than 5,000 people fled to two U.N. schools turned into temporary shelters.

Despite the heavy fighting, strides appeared to be made on the diplomatic front with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying the U.S. supported a deal being brokered by France and Egypt.

While the U.N. Security Council failed to reach agreement on a cease-fire resolution, Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

Senior envoy Amos Gilad arrived in Egypt Thursday morning.

The latest casualties brought the total Palestinian death toll during Israel's assault to 692 — including some 350 civilians, among them 130 children - according to Palestinian health officials, and drove home the complexities of finding a diplomatic solution for Israel's Gaza invasion. Ten Israelis have been killed, including three civilians, since the offensive began.

In Turkey, a Mideast diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that country would be asked to put together an international force that could help keep the peace. And diplomats in New York worked on a U.N. Security Council statement backing the cease-fire initiative but failed to reach agreement on action to end the violence.

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.

For its part, 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.

The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza — two territories on opposite sides of Israel that are supposed to make up a future Palestinian state. Hamas took control of Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.

Growing international outrage over the human toll of Israel's offensive, which includes 3,000 Palestinians wounded — could work against continued fighting. So could President Bush's departure from office this month and a Feb. 10 election in Israel.

But Israel has a big interest in inflicting as much damage as possible on Hamas, both to stop militant rocket fire on southern Israeli towns and to diminish the group's ability to play a spoiler role in peace talks with Palestinian moderates.

The Israeli Cabinet formally decided on Wednesday to push ahead with the offensive while at the same time pursuing the cease-fire.

The military has called up thousands of reserve troops that it could use to expand the Gaza offensive. Defense officials said the troops could be ready for action by Friday.

In Geneva, the international Red Cross said it found four small children alive next to their mothers' bodies in the rubble of a Gaza home hit by Israeli shelling. The neutral aid group says a total of 15 dead were recovered from two houses in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday.

A Red Cross spokesman said rescuers had been refused permission by Israeli forces to reach the site for four days. It said the delay in allowing rescue services access was "unacceptable."

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Lebanon criticises rocket attack into Israel

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldN...50728P20090108

Thu Jan 8, 2009 11:35am GMT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese government criticised a rocket attack from south Lebanon into Israel on Thursday, saying it was a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that halted a 2006 war between Hezbollah and the Jewish state.

Information Minister Tareq Mitri said he did not believe the political and military group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, was behind the attack.

"Hezbollah assured the Lebanese government that it remains engaged in preserving the stability in Lebanon and respects Security Council resolution 1701," the head of Mitri's office, Toufic Yannieh, quoted the minister as saying.

That implied no involvement by Hezbollah, he said. Hezbollah did not immediately comment in public. There were no claims of responsibility for the attack, to which Israel responded with a salvo of artillery shells into south Lebanon.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora asked the Lebanese authorities to step up measures and their cooperation with U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon to "prevent a repeat of these acts," a statement issued from his office said.

At least three rockets were fired from Lebanon, exploding in northern Israel and wounding two people in an attack seen as linked to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"Prime Minister Siniora regards what happened in the south as a violation of the international resolution 1701 and something he does not accept and rejects," the statement said.

Siniora called for an investigation into the rocket attack and also condemned the Israeli artillery salvo.

U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 halted the 34-day war between the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and Israel. Under the resolution, the Lebanese army deployed in the south of the country together with thousands of additional U.N. peacekeepers.

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Hundreds of thousands rally in Syria to protest Gaza attack

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
1/8/2009

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians swarmed downtown Damascus Thursday in a government-orchestrated rally to protest Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip.

It was the biggest protest ever in the Syrian capital since Israel launched an air and ground offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip Dec. 27. The protest was called by Syria's labor unions.

Syria's official news agency SANA and the state-run Syrian Television estimated the number of protesters in downtown Damascus at roughly one million. But independent estimates put it at hundreds of thousands.

Demonstrators in downtown Damascus carried pictures of Syria's president and the leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah, both of whom support Hamas.

The crowd, waving Syrian and Palestinian flags, also yelled protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for refusing to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Many in the Arab world have criticized Egypt for this, perceiving it as abetting Israel.

"Oh Mubarak, listen, listen, the Arab people will not kneel down," the protesters shouted.

Before the huge demonstration dispersed, an estimated few hundred of the protesters, marched to the Egyptian Embassy. The protesters, standing about 110 yards (100 meters) from the embassy, were prevented by Syrian riot police, carrying batons and protective shields, from reaching the building.

The protesters in downtown Damascus also trampled on an Israeli flag before burning it.

Some of the banners they carried read, "The Gazans' blood will not be shed in vain," and "Your blood is pure, Oh Gaza's people ... and the blood of Arab leaders stinks."

Mayadah Nashawati, a 50-year-old housewife, who was at the protest said: "Israel is committing a genocide at a time when the entire world is regretfully watching."

She said the Rafah crossing, which connects the Gaza Strip's 1.4 million residents with Egypt, must reopen to "salvage the Gazans from the holocaust."

Ahmed al-Hamid, a 17-year-old student, also urged Mubarak to open the Rafah crossing. "The Arabs must break their silence on the injustice that has befallen the Palestinian people," he said.

Israel has said that it started its campaign in order to stop Hamas rocket fire. More than 700 Palestinians have been killed since the offensive began.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian foreign ministry official lashed out Thursday at Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant group Hezbollah, for remarks Nasrallah made against Egypt in his latest speech. The official, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said so far the militant leader has given "nothing to Gaza but some ringing speeches."

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Lebanon minister says Hezbollah not behind attack

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldN...5072IT20090108

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Information Minister Tareq Mitri said Thursday he did not believe Hezbollah was behind a rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, according to an aide.

"Hezbollah assured the Lebanese government that it remains engaged in preserving the stability in Lebanon and respects Security Council resolution 1701," the head of Mitri's office, Toufic Yannieh, quoted the minister as saying.

Mitri said this implied Hezbollah was not involved in the rocket attack, Yannieh added.

Resolution 1701 ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006.

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UN truck comes under deadly fire in Gaza

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...i024607S10.DTL

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writers
Thursday, January 8, 2009

(01-08) 13:19 PST JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- 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.

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Congress To Give "Staunch And Unwavering Support" To Israel

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Congres..._01082009.html

1/8/2009

The US Congress is set to offer staunch and unwavering support for Israel as the Gaza conflict rages, recognizing its "inalienable right" to defend itself from attacks by Hamas.

Democratic and Republican leaders united to introduce a resolution backing Israel in the US Senate and a similar measure will soon be pending in the House of Representatives with both expected to pass by large majorities.

"When we pass this resolution, the United States Senate will strengthen our historic bond with the state of Israel by reaffirming Israel's inalienable right to defend against attacks from Gaza, as well as our support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid.

"Hamas must stop the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel -- that is the stated objective of the Israelis.

"I acknowledge and appreciate the calls by some for a ceasefire.

"Certainly we must encourage a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but we must be certain that any cease-fire is sustainable, durable, and enforceable."

Republican leader Mitch McConnell also placed blame for the start of Israel's war on Hamas on the Islamist group, after the death toll rose to 760 as dozens more bodies were discovered in Gaza.

"This resolution in support of the state of Israel has strong bipartisan support," McConnell said.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization, it clearly started this current conflict by launching rockets on the civilian sites in Israel," he said.

"The Israelis are responding exactly the same way we would if rockets were being launched into the United States from Canada or Mexico," he said.

The resolution calls on Hamas to end the rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, and says any ceasefire reached in the conflict must be "durable, enforceable and sustainable."

It calls for the lives of innocent civilians to be protected and says senators support a strong and secure Israel living in peace with an independent Palestinian state.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would take up a corresponding resolution on Friday.

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250 foreigners flee Gaza fighting

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/250_for..._01082009.html

1/8/2009

About 250 foreigners on Thursday took the risky ride from Gaza City to safety across the border, but hundreds are believed still left inside the war-stricken territory, diplomats said.

Some of those trapped, like Spaniard Maria Velasco, have made three attempts to get to the border but say they have been forced back by the fighting between Israel and Hamas or by bureaucratic obstacles.

The International Committee of the Red Cross organised the convoy of six buses that took 48 Canadians along with citizens of Austria, Norway, the Philippines, Romania and Sweden, officials said.

"It was risky," said Palestinian-Canadian Marwan Diad who was on holiday with his family when he became trapped in the war. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza."

At the Erez border crossing with Israel, the foreigners were greeted by diplomats from their countries and most were then escorted away to be taken onwards to Jordan where they were to board flights home.

Nasreen Elmadhoon, another Canadian Palestinian who had returned to Gaza to see her cancer-stricken father, blamed both sides for the conflict. "Everywhere people are being killed, people dying," she said.

"I was supposed to leave on January 1, but I was stuck there, just hearing the bombs, in the house, doing nothing. I am happy because I'm out, but I am worried about my family."

Her seven year-old son, Fawiz, said: "I hate bombs, I was scared. I tried to not hear them. At night, my mum was sleeping. I was the only one awake. There are so many bombs, almost to our house... it didn't come, but it was very close."

Israel allowed a first group of more than 200 foreigners to leave Hamas-controlled Gaza -- where medical workers say more than 760 people have been killed -- on January 2, the day before it sent in thousands of troops to back up a week of air raids.

Several attempts since then to evacuate foreigners have been cancelled because of fighting too close to the route they were meant to take.

Diplomats in Jerusalem estimate there are another 400 foreigners of 22 nationalities left in Gaza. Most are Palestinians with dual nationality or are married to Palestinians.

A Swedish diplomat said the consulate general in Jerusalem had been unable to contact two people on a list of 14 Swedish passport-holders still in Gaza.

"The others we have managed to stay in contact with, though even the mobile phone network is becoming very difficult now."

Maria Velasco, married to a Palestinian doctor, has tried three times to leave Gaza and told AFP by telephone from her home in the besieged southern town of Khan Yunis that she was now desperate.

She had hoped to leave with the others on Thursday but the Spanish consulate had not been able to get authorisation.

Spanish diplomatic sources blamed "circumstances beyond our control" and said the consulate general still hoped to get Velasco, her husband and two-year-old son out as soon as possible.

Velasco said she hoped to make a new attempt to leave on Friday, but was worried as "nowhere is safe."

She criticised what she called a "lack of coordination" by the Spanish government, Israel and the United Nations which had prevented them from being evacuated on Thursday.

She said she has been asking the Spanish consulate to get her out for more than a month.