Israel Mulls 48-Hour Halt To Gaza Strikes

Cease-Fire Being Weighed To Give Hamas Opening To Stop Rocket Attacks

(CBS/AP)  Israel, under international pressure, is considering a 48-hour halt to its punishing four-day air campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza to see if Palestinian militants will stop their rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

But Israel insists Hamas has not been damaged enough and that it is still prepared to use its ground troops, if that's what it deems is necessary, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips from the Israel-Gaza border.

"We will do whatever it takes," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "We are ready to deepen and widen the operation in order to make sure that the calm and tranquility will come back to the region."

Any truce offer would be coupled with a threat to send in ground troops if the rocket fire continues.

The dilemma that's been facing the Israelis is not just if, but how to use their troops, reports Phillips. A full scale military reoccupation of Gaza is not on the table.

The Israelis have been caught in that quagmire before, Phillips adds. The last time Israel invaded Gaza, their fruitless occupation lasted 38 years.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed the proposal - floated by France's foreign minister - and other possible next steps with his foreign and defense ministers, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to make the information public.

Earlier Tuesday, Olmert told Israeli President Shimon Peres that the current, aerial phase of the operation was just "the first of several" that have been approved, an Olmert spokesman said.

In its Tuesday night meeting, Israel's leadership trio stepped up preparations for a ground offensive, conducting a telephone survey among Cabinet ministers on a plan to call up an additional 2,500 reserve soldiers, if required. Earlier this week, the Cabinet authorized a callup of 6,700 soldiers.

After the four-hour meeting, Olmert's office issued a statement early Wednesday saying no details of the discussion would be made public because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

European Union foreign ministers met Tuesday evening in Paris for urgent talks on the crisis, with France and Germany both seeking a cease-fire.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called leaders in the Middle East to press for a durable solution beyond any immediate truce. Mr. Bush, at left, spoke with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad from his office at the ranch in Crawford, Texas, to discuss ways to stop the violence.

And members of the Quartet of world powers trying to promote Mideast peace concluded a conference call with an appeal for an immediate cease-fire. The Quartet powers are the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

And even amid talk of a truce, Israeli warplanes continued to unload bombs on targets in Gaza. Powerful airstrikes caused Gaza City's high-rise apartment buildings to sway and showered streets with broken glass and pulverized concrete. Israel's ground forces on Gaza's border also used artillery for the first time.

Hamas kept up its rocket barrages, which have killed four Israelis since the weekend, and sent many more in running for bomb shelters.

The killing zone has been spreading in this conflict, Phillips reports. The Israelis are burying victims in areas that have never been hit by Hamas rockets before.

A medium-range rocket hit the city of Beersheba for the first time ever, zooming 28 miles deep into Israel and slamming into an empty kindergarten. A second rocket landed in an open area near the desert city, Israel's fifth-largest. The military said later it successfully struck the group that launched those rockets.

A pattern of daytime lulls and nighttime spikes in rocket fire appeared to be emerging as militants found safer launch cover in darkness.

Four days into a campaign that has killed 374 Palestinians and prompted Arab and international condemnation, a diplomatic push to end the fighting gathered pace.

In two phone calls to Barak on Monday and Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed to him to consider a truce to allow time for humanitarian relief supplies to enter the beleaguered Gaza Strip, two senior officials in Barak's office said.
A Hamas spokesman said any halt to militant rocket and mortar fire would require an end to Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. "If they halt the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions," said Mushir Masri.

Any cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would face questions about its long-term viability. In the past, Hamas has been unable or unwilling to rein in all the militants, some of which belong to different factions. Israel has angered the Palestinians by continuing to target its leaders and by maintaining a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"It's certainly difficult for Hamas because, having witnessed the losses that they have just suffered on large scale, their credibility is on the line and they're not going to easily agree to a cease-fire that goes back to the conditions that prevailed before, after all these losses," said Shibley Telhami, professor of political science at the University of Maryland and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. "So, we're likely to see more bloodshed, and I think that is where we are in a way, events on the ground are going to dictate."

Israel's military, meanwhile, pressed on, sending warplanes to strike a Gaza government complex that includes the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and justice. Bombs ripped the tops and sides from buildings that had already been evacuated and left fires blazing in upper floors.

It was the largest government target hit so far and involved the largest number of bombs dropped in a single strike - at least 16 in all.

Most of the 364 people killed in Gaza since Saturday, according to Palestinian officials, were members of Hamas security forces, but the number included at least 64 civilians, according to U.N. figures.

The airstrikes have sent the people of densely populated Gaza on a zigzagging desperate search for safer ground - hard to find with no way out of the blockaded territory.

"I don't know what's safe anymore," said university student Rasha Khaldeh of Gaza City. She fled her home, fearing Israel would target her Hamas neighbors, then had to leave her uncle's house because of nearby shelling. She listens intently for the approach of pilotless Israeli drones.

During brief lulls between airstrikes, Gazans tentatively ventured into the streets to buy goods and collect belongings from homes they had abandoned after Israel's aerial onslaught began Saturday.

The campaign has brought a new reality to southern Israel, too, where one-tenth of the country's population of 7 million has suddenly found itself within rocket range.

"It's very scary," said Yaacov Pardida, a 55-year-old resident of Ashdod, southern Israel's largest city, which was hit Monday. "I never imagined that this could happen, that they could reach us here."

Israel's military said it hit 31 targets on Tuesday, including a Cabinet building, rocket-launching sites, and places were missiles were being built. Some of the hits on sites with weapons stockpiles triggered secondary explosions.

The question still hanging over the Israeli operation is how it can halt rocket fire. Israel has never found a military solution to the barrage of missiles. The "Iron Dome," a system to guard against short-range missiles, will take years to build.

Beyond delivering Hamas a deep blow and protecting border communities, the assault's broader objectives remained cloudy. Israeli President Shimon Peres acknowledged the challenge, saying the operation was unavoidable but more difficult than many people anticipated.

"War against terrorists is harder in some aspects than fighting armies," Peres said.

[impeach___w]

This is all a ploy into getting Iran to Act so Isreal can bomb them. Don''t get me wrong, they will bomb Iran regardless. It is just nice to have public opinion on your side and Especially Americas and specifically Obama''s

[wardoglrs]

The truth about whats really going

Google:

BENJAMIN FREEDMAN SPEAKS: A JEWISH DEFECTOR WARNS AMERICA

http://fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/zionism/news.php?q=1228947965

[noloyalisti]

The whole world now knows who the real terrorists are. The governments of Israel and the US. They are the ones killing and maiming to steal land and oil.

[closethippy1]

THE ORIGINAL SIN:

"Should we be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2,000 years of suffering and deserve all that will come to us."
Albert Einstein

"...If we had invested in the Arab problem one tenth of the energy, the passion, the ingenuity, the resourcefulness
which we developed in order to gain the support of Britain, France, the US and Weimar Germany, our destiny in the development of Israel may have been quite different... We were not ready for compromises; we did not make sufficient efforts to get, if not the full agreement of the Arabs, at least their acquiescence to a Jewish state, which I think would have been possible. That was the original sin."
Dr. Nahum Goldmann
President of the World Jewish Congress
writing in the New Outlook,
November-December 1974

[neoconrcrazy]

(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).


Posted by shirajordan


then start by stopping israeli state terror. Shalom

[closethippy1]

If Israel is being attacked in any way by Palestinians is because of the occupation and confiscation of their land.
Every word the Palestinians have said about Israel, every action taken, every breath comes after the fact.
Most Jews who lived in Palestine before Israel was created in 1948 came to Palestine after the end of World War 2. It wasn''t until 1996 that Israel elected a Prime Minister who was actually born in Israel.
So if land can be taken by force then, heck, it''s more than OK to take it back by force!
The only way to stop the bloodshed over there is by implementing international law which will then lead to the implementation of the agreed UN resolutions.
I don''t understand why Israel and the US are against this since Israel is the only country in the world to have been created by the UN!
So if the UN laws are good enough for its creation it sure is good enough to keep the peace.

[shirajordan]

To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and destruction without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over (in a military coup!) and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn''t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all through its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian''s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.

[shirajordan]

They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools exactly for this reason- they know that the Israeli army will not bomb those places. Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons which is being used against us.
The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places. And that is exactly what we are doing. The manipulations in the media, done by the Arabs are ridicules, at best.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation.
The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again. And if you support the Palestinians right now in any way- that means you support terrorism.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).

[rusure5]

The Israelis have made the world safer from little girls and from humanitarian relief ships.

[rusure5]

The Israelis have so far bombed Mosques and little schoolgirls, and who knows what else.

I wouldn''t be surprised if the Israelis are billing the Palestinians for wear and tear on their bombs.

[rusure5]

Re: "Maybe we can just STOP spamming the Christian bull and stick to what is really happening with Israelis killing the people of Gaza with fighter jets."

That is a great idea.

The Jesus users always seem to want to change the subject.

The latest Israeli genocide efforts against the Palestinians is the issue here, not someone else''s imaginary friends.

[christ_truth]

Maybe we can just STOP spamming the Christian bull and stick to what is really happening with Israelis killing the people of Gaza with fighter jets.

It is truly ridiculous.



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Posted by george2221

More rotten evil lies from you george. Israel is attacking EVIL HAMAS targets. NOT innocent civilians.

It''s your fellow ISLAMIC MILITANT JIHADISTS who target Israeli civilians for fun and then in their cowardly ways they use innocent civilians in Gaza as human shields in their propaganda war against the West.

YOU and your lies are sickening!

[rusure5]

Job 17:2
Re: "Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility."


Hence, the phrase ''get a Job''.

[christ_truth]

You fear the intolerance that is prevalent in the United States towards non-Christians."

Posted by george2221


Another WICKED lie. The USA allows ALL religions to practice in here. It is MUSLIM NATIONS that DO NOT ALLOW other faiths, especially like Saudi Arabia, where you CAN''T EVEN enter the country if you are a Jew!

Man you people and your lies. It''s such a crying shame!

[neoconrcrazy]

In September 2008, a six year-old girl and her friends were playing with an american cluster bomblet dropped by israeli warplanes they had found in a yard in Lebanon. After the bomblet exploded, her family found her hand mutilated and her whole body burned. She was taken to Najim Hospital in Tyre, where she spent four days recovering. Since the accident happened, she has been unable to speak, which doctors attribute to the trauma of the explosion.

As a result of the 2006 conflict between Lebanon and Israel, dangerous cluster munitions and other unexploded ordnance contaminate south Lebanon. The mine action organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG) responded to this emergency and since August 2006 has made more than 9 million square meters of land safe, benefiting more than 450,000 people

[christ_truth]

You are byproduct of the Dark Ages, when people who weren''''t Christian were killed.
posted by george2221

-Nice wicked lie again george. I was on here earlier CONDEMNING the acts of the Dark Ages, along with condemning the Crusades and Inquisitions.

You people and your continues lies lies lies are unhealthy for the human soul.

[rusure5]

"They reality is that you are afraid of what your friends, neighbors and law officials would do to you if you weren''t Christian. You fear the intolerance that is prevalent in the United States towards non-Christians."

Posted by george2221

That''s probably a pretty fair assessment.

[christ_truth]

you are no different maggot....say fvck you to hagee for me....


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Posted by Beodishazmi at 02:43 AM : Dec 31, 2008


your wicked, demonic threats and cursing towards me on here are far beyond the rules of engagement on these forums and they are borderline call the authorities type of material.

So if you want exposed you jerk, then keep posting your evil threatening remarks towards me.

[christ_truth]

I will never fear any evil. Psalm 23

The LORD is my rock, He is my strength. My shield, my comfort, my protection

[christ_truth]

christ_truth


that is VERY rude of you.no one is trying to disrespect christians
posted by nyc619

How DARE you accuse me of being rude. You need to read. I''ve been attacked with an ENDLESS AMOUNT OF CURSING, RIDICULE, SLANDER, THREATS, YOU NAME IT on this very forum and you have the NERVE to come out and call me the rude one.

If you would READ, you will CLEARLY SEE that these Muslims on here have said the most GOD-AWFUL things to me that one can possibly imagine.

It''s time for you to wake up my friend!