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Israel hammers Gaza as truce efforts build up
Israel again pounded Gaza yesterday, seeking to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to bow to truce efforts gathering pace in Egypt to end the deadliest assault the Jewish state has ever launched on the enclave.Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal told an Arab meeting in Doha that it would not accept any ceasefire that did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Israeli envoy Amos Gilad returned from Cairo after further discussions of Egypt's truce plan as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni headed to the United States to sign an agreement on preventing arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. Clamping down on the porous Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of underground tunnels form Hamas's main rear supply route, has been a key Israeli demand for ending the offensive that has killed more than 1,100 people in 21 days. "We hope we're heading toward the end," government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. "There is a lot of diplomatic activity and at the same time the military pressure on Hamas continues." Visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said that a deal on a truce appeared "very close" and that he hoped it could be sealed within a couple of days. Calling Israel's offensive an "unprecedented catastrophe," Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad appealed for an immediate halt to the fighting. "Each passing hour means more people die," he said. But a senior Israeli official told AFP that the government did not intend to lessen its military strikes in the impoverished territory. "The prime minister believes that the army should continue pressing Hamas in order to consolidate the gains made so far and guarantee that any ceasefire reached will be long-lasting," he said. A day after Israeli raids set landmark buildings ablaze in Gaza's main city, the military hammered the territory with some 40 airstrikes against fighters, tunnels and a mosque suspected of being used as a weapons store, the army said. Israeli tanks meanwhile withdrew at dawn from the Gaza City neighbourhood of Tal Al-Hawa, where heavy fighting the previous day levelled parts of the residential area and set a hospital ablaze. At least 23 bodies were pulled from the rubble in Tal Al-Hawa and elsewhere after medics rushed to the neighbourhood, the site of furious clashes that sent hundreds of terrified civilians fleeing for safety. Israel says its offensive is intended to stop the rockets but Gaza militants have continued the fire on southern Israel, launching more than 700 rockets and mortar rounds during the assault. Posted by: Fred 2009-01-17 |
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