Efforts to end a week of Israeli-Palestinian violence have drawn in the world's top diplomats, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heading to the Middle East today and the UN chief arriving in Jerusalem amid global calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have staked tough, hard-to-bridge positions, and the gaps keep alive the threat of an Israeli ground invasion. On Tuesday, grieving Gazans were burying militants and civilians killed in ongoing Israeli airstrikes, and barrages of rockets from Gaza sent terrified Israelis scurrying to take cover.
From Egypt, before heading to Jerusalem for a joint news conference with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he came to the region because of the "alarming situation."
"This must stop. Immediate steps are needed to avoid further escalation, including a ground operation," Ban said. "Both sides must hold fire immediately … Further escalation of the situation could put the entire region at risk."
Meanwhile, the Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi says Israel's "aggression" against Gaza will end Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, Morsi did not provide any evidence to support his prediction that an end to Israel's weeklong offensive against Gaza is imminent. He would only say negotiations between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers will yield "positive results" during the coming hours.
Israeli soldiers stand atop a tank at a staging area near the border with central Gaza on Tuesday. (Darren Whiteside/Reuters) As part of various global efforts Tuesday to broker a solution, Clinton was dispatched to the Mideast from Cambodia, where she had accompanied U.S. President Barack Obama on a visit to Southeast Asia, a deputy White House national security adviser said.
The official said Clinton would begin her Mideast diplomacy by meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, then she would meet with senior officials of the Palestinian government in the West Bank before heading to Cairo to meet with Egyptian leaders.
The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials. The Obama administration blames Hamas for the latest eruption of violence and says Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, it has warned against a ground invasion, saying it could send casualties spiraling.
The conflict erupted last week, when a resurgence in rocket fire from Gaza provoked the Israeli government to strike back, killing the Hamas military chief in an air attack and carrying out hundreds of assaults on underground rocket launchers and weapons stores.
The onslaught abruptly turned deadlier over the weekend as aircraft were ordered to go after Hamas military commanders and buildings suspected of housing their commands and weapons caches. In the narrow warrens of crowded Gaza, where militants often operate from residential areas, civilian casualties mounted.
On Tuesday, Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Jerusalem, setting off air raids across the city. Moments later, an explosion could be heard in the distance from downtown Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket apparently did not reach the city and authorities are searching for the blast site. It's the second rocket attack targeting Jerusalem since the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out last Wednesday.
By Tuesday, civilians accounted for 54 of the 113 Palestinians killed since the operation began. Some 840 people have been wounded, including 225 children, Gaza health officials said.
Overnight, the Israeli military struck roughly 100 targets, including the headquarters of a bank believed to be controlled by Hamas, reported the CBC's Derek Stoffel from Gaza City. Gaza health officials say at least seven Palestinians died in those attacks, Stoffel reported.
Three Israeli civilians have also been killed and dozens wounded since the fighting began last week, the numbers possibly kept down by a rocket-defence system that Israel developed with U.S. funding. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel this week, the military said. An Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson said at least 39 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel on Tuesday, with some hitting the city of Be'er Sheva.
Stoffel said there were reports that 16 missiles targeted Be'er Sheva, striking a house and a bus.
The Israeli prime minister said Israel was exploring a diplomatic solution, but wouldn't balk at a broader military operation.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is heading to Israel on Tuesady from Cambodia, where she was accompanying U.S. President Barack Obama on a visit to Southeast Asia. (Samrang Pring/Reuters) "I prefer a diplomatic solution," Netanyahu said in a statement after meeting with Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, who is also in the region trying to advance peace efforts. "But if the fire continues, we will be forced to take broader measures and will not hesitate to do so."
Earlier in the day, Westerwelle said a truce must be urgently pursued, "but of course, there is one precondition for everything else, and this is a stop of the missile attacks against Israel."
Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers were to arrive in Gaza later Tuesday on a separate truce mission.
More than 1,000 rockets fired at Israel
Tuesday's attack on the Islamic National Bank in Gaza was the latest in a string of assaults on Hamas symbols of power. Leading Hamas members set up the bank after it violently overran Gaza in June 2007 because foreign lenders, afraid of running afoul of international terror financing laws, stopped doing business with the militant-led Gaza government.
Israel, the U.S. and other Western powers consider Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, a terror group.
The inside of the bank, which was set up by leading Hamas members and describes itself as a private enterprise, was destroyed.
Owner Suleiman Tawil, 31, grimly surveyed the damage to his store and six company cars. "I'm not involved in politics," he said. "I'm a businessman. But the more the Israelis pressure us, the more we will support Hamas."
Displaced Palestinian members of the Balata family, who fled their house, sit in a classroom as they stay at a United Nations-run school in Gaza City on Tuesday. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters) Fuad Hijazi and two of his toddler sons were killed Monday evening when missiles struck their one-storey shack in northern Gaza, leaving a crater two to three metres deep in the densely populated neighborhood. Residents said he was not a militant.
"We want to tell the world which is supporting the state of Israel, what this state is doing," said neighbour Rushdie Nasser. "They are supporting a state that kills children … We want to send a message to the UN and the West: Enough of supporting the Zionists, who are killing children."
More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel this week, the military said, including three that struck schools that had been emptied because of the fighting.
Meanwhile, the UN chief arrived in Cairo on Monday and was to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Tuesday. In Cairo, Ban said he would also travel to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. With tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers dispatched to the Gaza border, awaiting a possible order to invade, his mission was all the more urgent.
Egypt, the traditional mediator between Israel and the Arab world, has been at the centre of recent diplomatic efforts involving the U.S., Turkey, Qatar and other nations.
Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.
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