Clashes Resume After 3-Hour Cease-Fire as Israel, Palestinians Consider Gaza Plan

Wednesday January 7th

FOXNEWS:

You can click here to see current photos of this confict:
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,6177,00.html

Three hours of peace to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza came to an abrupt halt as a top Hamas official said the group was sticking to its demands and predicted additional violence with Israel.

Clashes resumed in Gaza Wednesday after Israel's military paused its Gaza offensive for three hours to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians.

Israel will suspend its assault in the Gaza Strip from 1 to 4 p.m. local time (6 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST) each day to allow aid to flow through a humanitarian corridor it is setting up in the Hamas-ruled territory, a military source said on Wednesday.

In turn, Hamas said it will not launch any missiles at Israeli targets as the Jewish state puts on hold its military operation, the group's deputy leader said on Wednesday.

"There will be no missile launching in these three hours," Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Arabiya television.

Israel said on Wednesday that talks are still underway with Egypt over a cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip despite French President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that Israel and the Palestinian Authority accepted a U.S.-backed cease-fire plan for Gaza, Reuters reported.

A Hamas official in the Gaza Strip dismissed as irrelevant reports that the Palestinian Authority backed the Egyptian-French proposals, saying it was "still under discussion."

Israel Spokesman Mark Regev said Israel could accept the proposal if it halts "hostile fire" from Gaza and includes measures to prevent Hamas from rearming.

As Israel's leadership met in the morning in Tel Aviv, sounds of heavy gunfire and thick plumes of smoke engulfed the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City. Israel said it struck 40 Hamas targets during the hours of darkness. Gaza health officials said new strikes Wednesday morning killed eight people.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for an immediate end to fighting in the Gaza Strip during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York.

Ban criticized both Israel for its bombardment of Gaza and Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and urged members to act "swiftly and decisively to put this crisis to an end."

In the wake of the criticism over civilian casualties, Israel agreed to set up a "humanitarian corridor" to ship vital supplies into the Gaza Strip. Under the plan, put forward by the Israeli Defense Ministry, Israel would suspend attacks to allow people to get supplies.

A cease-fire initiative to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in Hamas-rule Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up on the proposal.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the initiative seeks an immediate cease-fire by Israel and Palestinian factions for a specific period to allow secure corridors for delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and give Egypt time to continue efforts to reach a permanent cease-fire.

Egypt is inviting the warring Israeli and Palestinian sides for urgent meetings to resolve issues underlying the fighting, including securing Gaza's borders, reopening all crossings and lifting the Israeli "siege," Mubarak said.

The U.N. Security Council held a high-level emergency meeting late Tuesday as international pressure mounted for an end to the 11-day Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 670 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, and injured at least 2,500, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.

Israel says it launched the air and ground attack to end Hamas rocketing that has traumatized southern Israel. Hamas, a militant Islamic group which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in June 2007.

From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 2001 through May 2008, Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks against Israeli targets.

At Tuesday's four hour council meeting, virtually every Arab speaker denounced the Security Council's failure to adopt a legally binding resolution to stop the Israeli offensive and demand a durable cease-fire.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the council's "deafening silence" placed "a big question mark" over its credibility "and the entire system of international security."

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the Egyptian and French presidents launched their initiative, which the league's 22 members support, because of the council's procrastination.

"We do not see any contradiction between that initiative and the work of the Security Council," he said. "In fact, they both complement each other ... since our objective is the same."

To try to spur speedy council action, Libya formally circulated a revised Arab draft resolution Tuesday that, in party, calls for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of all crossings into Gaza.

But the draft makes no mention of a key U.S. and Israeli demand — for border monitors to destroy tunnels that Hamas has used to smuggle arms since seizing control of Gaza. In fact, it never mentions Hamas by name.

The Security Council scheduled another meeting Wednesday morning.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit read Mubarak's statement in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt to the council.

Mubarak also renewed Egypt's invitation to the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian factions to try again to achieve "Palestinian reconciliation," a move considered essential for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Egyptian president said the Israelis and Palestinians should also be willing to discuss border security and other issues that led to the conflict with the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers which includes the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters at a joint news conference with in Sharm-el-Sheik that he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to inform him of the initiative.

He said Mubarak invited Israel "to come discuss the question of border security ... (and) that could be in the hours ahead."

"I have good hope that the reaction of Israeli authorities will allow us to imagine an end to the operation they have undertaken in Gaza, that is not only a cease-fire but a withdrawal," Sarkozy said.

At U.N. headquarters, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told members "a halt to violence is the immediate priority."

"We are awaiting the Israeli response and we harbor hope that it will be a positive one," Kouchner said.

In Jerusalem, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, told AP: "We are holding off comments on that for the time being."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Security Council that the United States, Israel's closest ally, understands "the urgency of an end to the fighting" and is working around the clock to achieve it.

"In this regard, we are pleased by, and wish to commend, the statement of the president of Egypt and to follow up on that initiative," Rice said.

But she cautioned that any solution must include an end to Hamas rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, the opening of all borders in Gaza, and an end to arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory.

"I express my support for the plan set in motion today by president Mubarak and president Sarkozy," Abbas told the council.

A Hamas delegate who attended talks Tuesday with Egypt's intelligence chief said Hamas representatives would discuss Mubarak's proposals. He did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev defended the country's military action in Gaza, saying Hamas "has no interest in making peace" and only wants to inflict terror on Israel and "tyranny" in Gaza, where its forces hide among innocent civilians.

First, let me say I love the fact that both sides are willing to pause for three hrs every day to let humanitarian aid through.

Second, theses sentences need to be next to each other.
"The 11-day Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 670
Palestinians, about half of them civilians, and injured at least 2,500."


"From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks."

Now I don't know why Fox News chose that period, but ... In 11 DAY Israel has killed and wounded more people that Hamas was able to in 4 YEAR period. Israel is so much more efficient.

ya if you add up all deaths on all sides you get a pretty interesting number....especially when you look at the amount of actual civilians killed....you would assume the "terrorists" have killed and injured WAY more but that's not the case....that's just how the case is presented to us