Israel Vows To Push Gaza Offensive

(stock.xchng user djayo)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday he would push ahead with the army's widescale offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the fight to free an abducted soldier and stop militant rocket fire would last for a "long time."

The 12-day-old operation has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, left 51 Palestinians dead and led to international complaints that Israel was using excessive force.

An Israeli airstrike targeted a car Sunday night carrying Hamas militants near Gaza City, wounding five people, including an 8-year-old girl, Palestinian health officials said. The vehicle was filled with explosives, which led to a series of large secondary explosions, the army said.

Just after midnight, Israeli aircraft attacked a building on the outskirts of Gaza City, setting it on fire, Palestinians said. No injuries were reported. The military said the building was used by Islamic Jihad to make weapons.

Despite the offensive, Palestinian militants launched three rockets into Israel on Sunday, moderately wounding one person in the Israeli town of Sderot and damaging a house. And militants linked to the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party maintained their refusal to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a June 25 raid — or even reveal his condition.

But as the death toll in Gaza rises along with the anger, attempts to find a diplomatic solution are foundering, CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

Speaking to the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday, Olmert counseled patience.

"We're talking about a war that will continue for a long time and it is complicated," Olmert said, according to a participant in the meeting. "This is a war for which we cannot set down a timetable and we can't say how long it will continue."

But he also said there will be no truce until the captured Israeli soldier is freed, MacVicar reports.

The Israeli Cabinet expressed unanimous support for the military action in Gaza and Olmert's refusal to negotiate with the Hamas-linked militants, who demanded the release of 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about Shalit.

Israeli security officials told the Cabinet that the offensive, the army's largest operation in Gaza since Israel withdrew from the territory last summer, was likely to force the militants to scale back their demands, according to the participant in the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

But Palestinians were widely supportive of the militants' actions. A poll released Sunday showed that 77 percent of those questioned backed Shalit's kidnapping and 67 percent said they supported further abductions. Sixty-nine percent said the soldier should only be released in exchange for prisoners.