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Israel mulls brief truce, says blitz could last weeks
AFP - Wednesday, December 31
GAZA CITY (AFP) - - Israel on Tuesday mulled a proposed 48-hour truce after world leaders stepped up calls for an end to the violence and warplanes pummelled Hamas targets in the battered Gaza Strip for a fourth day.
But officials warned earlier that the onslaught, which has killed at least 368 Palestinians, could continue for weeks.
Hamas militants continue to fight back, firing deadly rockets deep inside Israel, and warned they would continue doing so.
"We tell the leaders of the enemy -- if you continue with your assault, we will hit with our rockets further than the cities we have hit so far," a masked spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in televised comments.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was to meet his foreign and defence ministers to consider a French proposal for a 48-hour truce in Gaza , a senior official said.
Just hours before the meeting, senior officials insisted Israel would press on with the offensive, which has sparked Muslim outrage and protests worldwide.
"What we want is not a ceasefire but a stop to terrorism," said President Shimon Peres.
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned a ceasefire would allow Hamas "to regain strength, recover from the shock and prepare an even stronger attack against Israel."
"There is no reason that we would accept a ceasefire at this stage," he told AFP.
With tanks and troops massed on the Gaza border, the Israeli military said "ground forces are ready" to join what politicians have warned would be a prolonged offensive.
Olmert said the bombardment so far was "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet," while deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned the offensive -- one of Israel's deadliest against Gaza -- could turn into "weeks of combat."
Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said the "all-out war" against Hamas "will be intensified as necessary" to "deal a severe blow to Hamas so that it stops firing against Israeli citizens and soldiers."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice renewed calls for a halt to the fighting in a telephone conversation, Moscow said.
The two were to join a conference call with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and senior Middle East envoy Tony Blair later on Tuesday.
EU foreign ministers were also set to meet in Paris to discuss the Gaza crisis.
In Brussels, the European Union's executive arm sounded the alarm about the "plight of civilians" in the battered territory, and called "for an immediate halt to military hostilities... (and) to the rocket attacks."
Children again fell victim to Israel's "all-out war" on the Islamist Hamas movement, with two sisters dying when a missile slammed onto their donkey cart in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun.
In Gaza City, residents picked through rubble and broken glass after a night which saw Israel hammer the overcrowded territory with some 40 strikes on Hamas buildings, training camps and rocket launching sites.
"It was a night of horror, the way the earth shook," said Iyad al-Sayagh, a mother who lives in the area.
Four days of intensive bombardment have killed several senior Hamas officials and reduced much of the Islamist movement's infrastructure in Gaza to rubble, but have failed to stop rocket fire.
Three Israelis -- two civilians and one soldier -- were killed on Monday by rockets fired from Gaza, with one slamming into the southern port city of Ashdod more than 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border.
Hamas has warned it could launch suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.
Since the massive aerial attack was unleashed on Saturday in a bid to halt persistent rocket fire from Gaza, at least 368 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, Gaza medics say.
Palestinian militants have also fired more than 250 rockets, killing four people inside Israel and wounding around two dozen more.
Concern is growing about the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent enclave of 1.5 million which Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power in June last year.
The Israeli military opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow more than 100 trucks bearing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. On Monday, dozens of trucks were allowed through.
Israel's offensive followed days of rising violence after a tenuous six-month truce in and around Gaza ended on December 19. It also comes ahead of early parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.
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Warplanes are pounding Gaza for a fourth day as tanks stand by to join the "all-out" war Israel has vowed will wipe out Hamas which has already claimed at least 360 Palestinian lives.
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