JERUSALEM — A rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman Monday, just as an Egyptian mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel — underlining the urgency and complexity of working out a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The rocket hit a house in the village of Yesha, about 4 miles from the Gaza Strip. As recently as Friday, a fatal rocket attack drew reprisal Israeli airstrikes that killed five Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev denounced the latest attack but did not say it would halt the truce talks.
“The rocket fire into Israel will end. It will end either because calm will be achieved, or Israel will act to protect its people,” he said.
The talks by mediator Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief, produced no tangible results Monday. He came to discuss Egypt’s months of talks with the Hamas movement and many smaller militant groups.
The outline of the envisioned cease-fire would be a six-month truce, stopping near-daily Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks and Israel’s military reprisals. Also, Israel would ease the punishing economic blockade it imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in violence last June.
