JERUSALEM — Twelve days into its punishing military assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel was proceeding on two tracks Wednesday: exploring a cease-fire initiative by Egypt and France while readying troops for a possible push into Gaza’s crowded cities and refugee camps.
A senior Defense Ministry official, Amos Gilad, was set to travel today to Cairo to hear more details about the truce proposal.
Egypt’s United Nations ambassador, Maged Abdel Aziz, said that representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas also would arrive for separate discussions.
The French-Egyptian proposal calls for an immediate cease-fire for a limited period, followed by further talks to set the terms of a long-term truce. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters at the U.N. that Washington is “supporting that initiative,” and an official traveling with her said the Israelis were being urged to pursue it.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said: “We welcome the Egyptian-French initiative and we’re engaging with them, but it is still a work in progress.”
Regev said the aim is “a sustainable quiet that must include the total cessation of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and the complete ending of arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.”
The arms embargo on Hamas is a “make-or-break issue,” Regev added.
Hundreds of tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border have been a major source for the smuggling of rockets, explosives and other weapons for Hamas’ armed wing. Israel has repeatedly bombed the tunnels during the current military campaign and did so again Wednesday after warning area residents to flee. Thousands were reported to have sought refuge in two U.N. schools.
Hamas is insisting on an opening of border crossings to the Gaza Strip that have been virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt as part of a blockade on the territory, and it has vehemently rejected the idea that an international force would be stationed in Gaza to oversee the truce.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that first Israel must halt its offensive, in which the Palestinian death toll is approaching 700.
“The aggression must stop, the siege must be lifted, and the Zionist forces must pull out, and then we can talk about other issues, including calm and rockets,” he said.
Israel halted its bombardments in Gaza for three hours Wednesday, allowing people trapped in their homes to emerge and stock up on supplies. Long lines formed at bakeries, and people shopped for food in the rubble-strewn streets. Medics pulled bodies from the wreckage of bombed buildings in areas that had been too dangerous to approach during the fighting.
Israel allowed in 80 trucks of supplies from various donors and a limited quantity of fuel for Gaza’s power plant. Wide areas of the Gaza Strip have been without power or running water because of fuel shortages and damage to electricity lines caused by the fighting.
In southern Israel, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been staying near bomb shelters and specially reinforced rooms, taking cover when sirens warn of an incoming rocket. Hamas has increased the range of its rockets during the conflict, and on Tuesday it struck Gedera, 18 miles from Tel Aviv, lightly wounding a baby.
In continuing Israeli airstrikes and shelling Wednesday, more than 30 Palestinians were killed, including four members of a family whose car was hit and three small girls in the Jabaliya refugee camp, medics said.
