Egypt floats truce plan after Gaza school deaths

07/01/2009| IslamWeb

Israel and Hamas studied an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday that won immediate backing from the United States and Europe, hours after Israeli shells killed 43 Palestinians at a U.N. school.

However, Israeli officials also said ministers would discuss a major escalation of their 12-day-old offensive that would push troops deep inside Gaza's cities and refugee camps.

In fresh fighting, 11 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, medical workers said. At least eight Hamas rockets hit southern Israeli, causing no casualties.

An Israeli army source said Israel planned to halt military operations from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (6 a.m. EST to 9 a.m. EST) every day, starting on Wednesday, near the city of Gaza to allow aid to flow through a "humanitarian corridor" it is setting up.

Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip said Israel informed them of the move to allow shops to open and for funerals to take place. Aid agencies have complained of a mounting crisis for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli government sources said ministers were likely to defer a vote on starting an urban warfare stage of the offensive, which began with air strikes on December 27 and moved into a ground offensive last Saturday, and give Egypt's ceasefire efforts a chance.

A Palestinian official said the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers, who want an end to Israel's blockade of the enclave, had been briefed in Egypt by President Hosni Mubarak and were debating the proposal.

More than 660 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting.

In New York, where the U.N. Security Council met on Gaza, Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told reporters: "I am sure that (Egypt's proposal) will be considered and you will find out whether it was accepted. But we take it very, very seriously."

On a frequency used by a radio station in the Gaza Strip, an announcer, saying he was speaking on behalf of the Israeli army, warned residents of the southern town of Rafah to leave their homes by 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EST) on Thursday.

He said the Israeli military would destroy a number of homes it believes are built on top of shafts leading to tunnels.

Israeli government sources said Egypt was seeking an initial 48-hour ceasefire, during which it would put the finishing touches to its plan. Israel, the sources said, opposed a preliminary truce and wanted all the details of a ceasefire agreement completed first.

Arab and widespread international anger mounted on Tuesday when Israel acknowledged hitting a U.N. school where hundreds of people were taking refuge. Medics said 42 people were killed.

Israel accused Hamas of using civilians as "human shields" and said troops had been returning mortar fire from the school.

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that runs the institution in Jabalya refugee camp, said: "We're 99.9 percent sure, after an initial investigation, that there were no militants at the school."

On Tuesday alone, 77 Palestinian civilians were killed.

A U.N. spokesman said the world body wanted an inquiry into both the incident and Israel's allegations about fighters firing from schools.

The deaths in the school prompted Obama to break his silence on the Gaza offensive and to say the loss of life among civilians was "a source of deep concern" for him.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on the Internet for Muslims to "hit the interests of the Zionists and Crusaders wherever and in whichever way you can."

Hamas has demanded a lifting of the blockade of Gaza in any truce. It seized the territory in 2007, 18 months after it won a parliamentary election.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke billows from fires raging on the edge of Gaza City.

Reuters