"Decisive" Talks Planned Amid Gaza Turmoil

Israeli Truce Negotiator To Head To Egypt As Israeli Forces Push Into Gaza City

(CBS/AP)  Terrified residents ran for cover Tuesday in a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City as Israeli troops backed by tanks thrust deeper into the city and sought Hamas fighters in alleyways and cellars.

On the diplomatic front, Egyptian mediators pushed Hamas to accept a truce proposal and, in a hopeful sign, Israel sent its lead negotiator to Cairo for talks on a cease-fire. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also headed for the region to join diplomatic efforts.

Israeli military officials say that depending on what happens with what they described as the "decisive" talks in Cairo, Israel will move closer to a cease-fire or widen its offensive. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive policy matters.

Asked if Israel's war aims had been achieved, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "Most of them; Probably not all of them."

Israeli troops now have the coastal city of 400,000 virtually surrounded as part of an offensive launched Dec. 27 to en

Israel says intense bombing tody has hit more tunnels used to smuggle arms and squads of Hamas gunmen. With the ring of troops and armor around Gaza's biggest city getting tighter, an officer in the field even says he thinks Hamas has "folded" - at the same time Israel's military chief says there's "still work to do," reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

The Israeli threat is an all-out attack on Gaza's packed cities. From his bunker, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was still defiant, but added he'd cooperate with an initiative toward a cease-fire.

And with food, electricity and shelter all in desperately short supply, that may be a sign Hamas is feeling the pressure of Palestinian suffering, Roth reports.

There was some disagreement in the Israeli war cabinet on whether to push further into Gaza's urban areas and cause more civilian casualties, or declare victory and stop, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.

On Monday, Israel's Foreign Minister told CBS News that Israeli troops may be forced to stay in Gaza for some time.

"We hope to find a way to live in peace and protect our citizens without re-occupying Gaza, but at the end of the day, in the Middle East the choice is between bad options," Tzipi Livni told Phillips.

Palestinian medical officials reported at least 42 deaths from the conflict on Tuesday throughout Gaza.

The army said three soldiers were wounded, including an officer who was searching a northern Gaza house when a bomb exploded.

Palestinian hospital officials say more than 940 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed in the fighting. A total of 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers, have died.

Palestinian rocket fire has dropped significantly since the offensive was launched. Some 15 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel Tuesday, causing no injuries, the army said.

Fireballs and smoke plumes from Israeli bombing have become a common sight in the territory of 1.4 million people, who are effectively trapped because of blockaded border crossings. Recent fighting has focused on Gaza City, where Israeli soldiers could be increasingly exposed to the treacherous conditions of urban warfare.

The operation in Tel Hawwa neighborhood, one mile southeast of downtown, matched fast-paced forays into other areas designed to avoid Israeli casualties. Residents said troops entered overnight, reconnoitered the area, and then pulled back to more secure positions.

One Israeli military officer told The Associated Press that Hamas fighters often operate in small groups of up to four and have largely refrained from confronting Israeli troops at close range.

"Their strategy has mainly been to use lots of booby-traps, shooting guns and missiles from afar," the Israeli officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"Soldiers are taking lots of precautions, they are being more careful than the army has ever been before in any war," he said. "Soldiers shoot at anything suspicious, use lots of firepower, and blast holes through walls to move around."

Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the Israeli military, said Hamas militants also have put on Israeli military uniforms to try to approach troops and carry out suicide bombings.

Hamas, which is backed by Iran, cannot hope to score a battlefield victory over the powerful Israeli military, but mere survival could earn it political capital in the Arab world as a symbol of resistance to the Jewish state. Lebanon's Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, largely achieved that goal in its 2006 war with Israel.

On Tuesday, a Gaza resident said he saw Hamas militants in civilian clothing firing rockets from the southeastern corner of the territory. He spoke by telephone and requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Israel says it will push forward with the offensive until Hamas ends all rocket fire on southern Israel, and there are guarantees the militant group will stop smuggling weapons into Gaza through the porous Egyptian border.

Israel has Gaza surrounded on three sides, and Egypt - which received $23 million in U.S. aid last year - is making an effort to seal its border, Roth reports.

Yet weapons continue to flow in through an elaborate system of supply tunnels - hundreds of them - clustered near the Gaza border crossing, Roth reports.

Gazans are getting over the border by going under it, through a network of tunnels that runs from buildings on their side, deep under the ground (and the border fence) to hideaways in Egypt.

"These tunnels are not just foxholes, they are very complicated structures, they're long, they have electricity, they have trails and tracks going through them," Israeli army spokesman Ron Edelheit tells Roth. "Food? Who cares? But when we talk about bombs and rockets and TNT and C-4 and you name it that terrorizes the Israeli population that surrounds it, this is not something the state of Israel can live by and we need to operate. We cannot just sit quietly."

To win the war, Israel says it needs to stop the smuggling of arms and explosives. Military sources believe aerial bombardment so far has destroyed about a 150 tunnels. But about a 150 more may still be in use, Roth reports.

Hamas has said it will only observe a cease-fire if Israel withdraws from Gaza.

"We will not allow our enemy to gain any political achievement from this war on Gaza," said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas envoy in Egypt.

Much of the ongoing diplomacy focuses on an area of southern Gaza just across the Egyptian border that serves as a weapons smuggling route, making Egypt critical to both sides in any deal.

Israel wants smuggling tunnels along the border sealed and monitored as part of any deal, and has bombed suspected tunnel sites throughout its campaign.

One resident, Khader Mussa, said he fled his house while waving a white flag as Israeli forces advanced. He spent the night huddling in the basement of a relative with 25 other people, including his pregnant wife and his parents.

"Thank God we survived this time and got out alive from here. But we don't know how long we'll be safe in my brother's home," Mussa, 35, said by telephone.

The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of airstrikes on squads of gunmen, rocket launching sites and smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said dozens of calls for ambulances had been received, but they could not be dispatched because of the fighting.

The Gaza fighting has raised tensions around the region and galvanized anger toward Israel throughout the Arab world. On Tuesday, at least one gunman opened fire at an Israeli army patrol along the desert border between Israel and Jordan, the military said. There were no casualties, and Jordan said the claim was "baseless."

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli military said, a Palestinian was shot and injured after he tried to grab a gun from an Israeli soldier whose patrol stopped him for questioning. The man later died, according to an Associated Press reporter who saw his body.

Humanitarian concerns have increased amid the onslaught although some aid is getting through to Gaza during daily three-hour lulls declared by Israel to allow delivery of supplies.

In Brussels, the European Union's aid chief said Israel has not respected international humanitarian aid during the war. In Oslo, Norway, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Karen Abu Zayd, urged the Israeli army to do more to allow supplies into the besieged area.

"We are getting a lot of help from the Israeli Defense Forces on the one crossing that's open to get more and more trucks in, but it's just not enough," she said.

[rhs648]

An open invitation to the Palestinans in Gaza. Stop the bloodshed and misery. Capture your Hamas leaders and Hamas fighters. Don''''t let them use you as human shields. You and your children can enjoy better futures by ridding yourself of these people. Certainly peace, security, and safety are more important than letting the Hamas leaders lead you to more bloodshed, destruction and misery.

[rhs648]

Israel was starving the people - blockading food fuel and medicine. That''''s why hamas fired rockets.



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Posted by twoctruth

Logging missiles into Israel is a great way to make friends and influence people. Too bad it didn''t work.

[wardoglrs]

Israel ready to strike Iran.
The concept of insider information is a witch-hunter''s dream. It''s a natural for envy-driven losers, government lawyers, and the like.

Israel indeed will launch a strike against Iran''s nuclear facilities soon - possibly in just days as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office. The reason: The time clock has begun to run out. Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear device under the control of its radical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in June that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in as little as six months. That six-month period has passed. Reports of Israel''s decision to imminently launch strikes, although unconfirmed, would seem to contradict the Bush stance outlined in a front-page New York Times story last week, which asserted that Bush rejected a plea from Israel last year to help it raid Iran''s main nuclear complex

[wvu74621]

The last two ceasefire agreements Hamas had with Israel, one for 1 year and a half and the other for 6 months, Hamas didn''''t fire a single rocket.
Some other groups did but Hamas stopped them, otherwise the ceasfires mentioned above would not have lasted as long as they did.


Put any spin on it that you want. Palestinians ruined thier future when they allowed Hamas political power. You can spray perfume on a dog *** but it''s still a dog ***.

[wvu74621]

Posted by goodsamarata at 04:12 AM : Jan 14, 2009

It is so easy to cut and paste a passage from someone elses writings which may be true or untrue and then claim to have worldly knowledge of it. The truth right know is that Hamas has broken the very truce that they signed, they did''nt even go a week after Israel pulled ot of Gaza before launching rockets at Israel. The only ones'' to blame here is Hamas, noone else..Hamas. It is sad that Palestinians are dying, but Hamas brainwashes them and then uses them as puppets. Israel does''nt slap suicide vests on thier people and send them into Gaza, Isreal is''nt holding up thier dead to be seen by the world and then claim genocide. Hamas is a plague on Gaza and it''s people and will continue to be as long as they hold political power. There is something wrong with a polotical militant party that gives terrorist training tapes to thier citizens, issues them suicide vests and parade thier children through the streets dressed as jihadists, carrying toy guns and screaming death to the zionists death to America, dancing and celebrating in the streets after 9-11. And as an American you think I should have sympathy for people that want to kill me. You are trying to convice the wrong guy.

[wvu74621]

Israel will rightly be charged with War Crimes in the near future.


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Posted by drinuk at 04:06 AM : Jan 14, 2009
+

He says as he lights his crack pipe.

[drinuk]

Israel will rightly be charged with War Crimes in the near future.

[wvu74621]

"...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






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Posted by goodsamarata at 03:38 AM : Jan 14, 2009

Dream on. There was never nor will there ever be a way that Israel will be accepted as a state by muslims/arabs, and that is a shame. No amount of diplomacy will change this. It is ingrained in thier minds through the ideology set in the Koran, just as the survival of Israel is set in the minds of Jews, yet everyone wants to blame Israel for wanting to survive. Survival is an instinct that is in every human and animal. Back an human or animal into a corner and they will do what ever it takes to survive. My prayers are with the IDF and the innocent Palestinians that are bieng used as puppets by Hamas and Iran to further thier jihadist immoral attacks.

[wvu74621]

Haniyeh is sitting in Syria right now wondering what went wrong. Hamas has been poking a stick at a hornets nest for too long. The Israelis finally have had enough and if Israel is smart will not stop until Hamas can no longer weild any power whatsoever.

[wvu74621]

JERUSALEM, Aug. 16 %u2014 Israel and the United States signed a deal on Thursday to give Israel $30 billion in military aid over the next decade in what officials called a long-term investment in peace.


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Posted by Abrame at 12:51 AM : Jan 14, 2009


Great they deserve the aid!!!!! Hi Abrame.

[wvu74621]

Ismail Haniyeh and all the other demagogues in front of an Israeli tank. Crush Hamas, crush Hamas, crush Hamas. Collateral damage is unfortunate but unavoidable. No ceasefire for 3 more weeks until the IDF has finished its devastation. Iran and Hizbullah, be warned.

Posted by Ruger338WM at 03:00 AM : Jan 14, 2009

They can''t get to Haniyeh, the coward dog is hiding in a hotel in Syria. Fine role modle for his thug followers. Hamass'' days are numbered.

[wvu74621]

The obvious has not occurred to you. The USA is spending $12 billion per month to fight extreme fundamentalist Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan under the name of Al Qaeda and Taliban. Israel is fighting the same enemy under the name of Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel is shouldering a huge burden of the fight in lives and money so you do not think, relatively speaking, the comparable small amount of money is well spent to save American soldiers lives and defend our future? Israel, a small country a little bigger than the size of New Jersey with a population of 7 million has never asked any other country to shed their blood in what is a fight against a common enemy. How many American lives did it take to save France, England, Holland, South Korea%u2026%u2026?

Posted by Country1st at 02:03 AM : Jan 14, 2009


Please let me add a few, Kuwait,Bosnia,Kosovo. Bosnia and Kosovo the US stepped in to stop the killing of muslims, yet many muslims still point a fanatical finger at the US calling us the Great Satan. But they will take our money, food aid and take some for themselves gobble it down, and give it the rest to fund terrorist training camps.

[alaska47]

Hamas'' fighters are all bark and no teeth, or, as they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle!! Cowards. Why don''t they come out and die in the face of IDF fire like the ''martyrs'' they claim to be. The IDF needs to squeeze Gaza City until its few sane citizens throw Ismail Haniyeh and all the other demagogues in front of an Israeli tank. Crush Hamas, crush Hamas, crush Hamas. Collateral damage is unfortunate but unavoidable. No ceasefire for 3 more weeks until the IDF has finished its devastation. Iran and Hizbullah, be warned.

[country1st]

The obvious has not occurred to you. The USA is spending $12 billion per month to fight extreme fundamentalist Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan under the name of Al Qaeda and Taliban. Israel is fighting the same enemy under the name of Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel is shouldering a huge burden of the fight in lives and money so you do not think, relatively speaking, the comparable small amount of money is well spent to save American soldiers lives and defend our future? Israel, a small country a little bigger than the size of New Jersey with a population of 7 million has never asked any other country to shed their blood in what is a fight against a common enemy. How many American lives did it take to save France, England, Holland, South Korea%u2026%u2026?

[rhs648]

Another day has passed. Did the Palestinians send missiles into Israel? Have the Palestinians turned their leaders over to Israel? Have the Palestinians surrendered? Have the Palestinians pledged peace? Have the Palestinians disarmed? And finally, did the Hamas leader in syria have steak and eggs for breakfast? Bet he isn''t short on water, eggs, and meat. What are the Palestinians waiting for?

[rhs648]

Israel must do so much damage to the Palestinians in Gaza that the Palestinians can never claim victory. This should be a lesson other terrorists and would be terrorists understand. If the Palestinians tire of the destruction, they can capture the Hamas leaders and fighters and deal justice to them.

[country1st]

Jews have lived there for 3,500 years. Islam is only 1,500 years old. Part of Syrian Ottoman Empire became British Mandate in 1917 and called Palestine. Never was a country. Arabs sided with the Nazi losing the war. 1947 the UN approved the partition the area into a two state solution so Palestinians would have their state. May 14, 1948 British forces left the area, the State of Israel was declared and immediately recognized by the USA and Russia. Israel agreed to the two state solution but their Arab Semitic brothers Syria, Trans-Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq with troops from Saudi Arabia and Sudan took the gamble to declare war on Israel instead of having their country Palestine. After losing with the Nazis, the Arabs again lost the war in 1948 against Israel. Every country in the world except Australia has had its borders change. Jordan took possession of the West Bank and Egypt took possession of Gaza. Strange they had no interest in declaring a Palestinian state on the land they occupied?
Everyone has a point of view and a position. The two state solution is dealing with today%u2019s reality. Whatever your opinion my point is that Hamas and other fundamental Islamic extremists will never allow peace to happen and Palestinians, Israelis will continue to suffer as will ultimately the rest of the world.

[caldwellptr]

There is no execuse.

Hamas has not accepted any offers of peace. Hamas is not subjecting Israel to Terrorism in an attempt to make a better deal. Hamas acts through Terrorism simply for the destruction of Israel.

There is no execuse.

[rhs648]

When we wake up tomorrow morning, will we hear news that the Palestinians in Gaza will surrender, disarm, declare peace, and capture the Hamas leaders and fighters? If not, Israel can certainly wait another day or two or longer if necessary. How much punishment are the Palestinians willing to take for Hamas. Especially the Hamas leader living in Syria. Notice he is not too near the action.

[trapbreaker]

We can''''t afford it. And it''''s used to subvert the will of the people. - Posted by twoctruth

We can give ballout money in ammounts of $700 billion to Wall street and $300 billion to the big three auto makers, but $2.4 billion to Israel is going to break the bank?

Subvert the will of which people?

390 to 5

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday on a resolution "recognizing Israel''''s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza," Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday. The resolution was passed 390 to 5.

Introduced by Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner, the nonbinding vote came on the 14th day of an air and ground assault on the Palestinian territory. Israel says it is aimed at halting the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas militants.

The resolution''s language condemns Hamas, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization, for the rocket attacks and "for deliberately embedding its fighters, leaders and weapons in private homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and otherwise using Palestinian civilians as human shields."