Israel, Hamas shun truce calls

2009-01-10 18:04

Gaza - Israeli tanks advanced on Gaza and Hamas militants fired rockets at Israel on Saturday, as both sides ignored international calls to stop the conflict and Israel warned it would escalate its assault.

An Israeli tank shell killed eight Palestinians in Jabalya, a refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, and an air strike killed a woman in nearby Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said.

All of those killed in Jabalya were believed to be men from the same family. The Israeli army denied carrying out any attacks in the area.

The deaths, including those of several Palestinian gunmen, raised the Palestinian toll to at least 821, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis have been killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit in rocket fire.

Deepening humanitarian impact

The fighting continued even during a three-hour ceasefire window Israel has established in recent days to allow aid into Gaza to sustain the 1.5 million people living there.

As Israeli tanks advanced in northern Gaza and aircraft hit targets across the coastal strip, Hamas rockets hit Ashkelon, 20km north of Gaza, wounding three Israelis.

The Israeli military also dropped leaflets on southern Gaza, around the town of Rafah, warning residents to stay away from militants, weapons storage facilities and tunnels as it was about to escalate its bombing throughout the coastal territory.

"In the coming period, the Israeli army will continue to attack tunnels, weapons caches, and terrorists with escalating force all over the Gaza Strip," the leaflets read.

Concerned about the deepening humanitarian impact of the war, with more than half Gaza's population dependent on UN food assistance, the UN said it hoped to resume full aid distribution after receiving Israeli assurances that its staff would not be harmed. A UN driver was killed on Thursday.

Egypt will not accept foreign troops

Israel has pressed on with its offensive despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and Egyptian-European efforts at mediation, saying it is intent on stopping Hamas rocket fire. Hamas, too, has ignored calls for a halt to hostilities, firing eight rockets at Israel on Saturday.

A phalanx of Israeli tanks advanced from the north towards the city of Gaza, creeping in on the large refugee camp of Jabalya, home to around 100 000 people.

In an attempt to breathe life into a faltering Egyptian-led mediation effort, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party is a political foe of Hamas, met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for talks in Cairo.

They discussed the possible deployment of international forces along the Gaza-Egypt border under any ceasefire deal, but Abbas said they should be in Gaza itself, not along the border.

Privately, diplomats believe the Egyptian initiative, also sponsored by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is in trouble, even if Israel has said talks about the proposal will continue and Hamas has sent representatives to Cairo.

"There is a growing sense that the Egyptian-French plan is not going to work," a senior European diplomat told Reuters.

Little traction

Following talks with Abbas, Egypt said it would not accept foreign troops on its side of the 15km border with Gaza to prevent arms smuggling.

But Germany, whose foreign minister also met with Egyptian officials, said it would send experts to help assess Egypt's police training needs to bolster anti-smuggling efforts.

Israel says the Egyptians have failed in the past to prevent Hamas building up an arsenal of Soviet-designed missiles.

As with the Egyptian initiative, the UN Security Council resolution late on Thursday calling for an immediate ceasefire appears to have little traction with Israel or Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed it as "unworkable" and Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said they objected because they had not been consulted.

(Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem and Hans-Edzard Busemann and William Rasmussen in Cairo; Writing by Luke Baker; editing by Michael Roddy)

- Reuters