GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli troops tightened their grip on urban areas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday on the 18th day of an offensive against Hamas guerrillas, while world leaders struggled to coax the sides to a ceasefire.
The Palestinian death toll passed 900, including many civilians, as Israeli tanks moved to the edges of the city of Gaza and troops backed by air and naval strikes fought intense battles with Hamas militants.
Israeli leaders met to decide on further steps, Israeli media said, as Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said defiantly in a televised broadcast that "victory is at hand."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon headed to the region to further press for a truce in a week of talks with leaders in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria.
"My message is simple, direct, and to the point: the fighting must stop. To both sides, I say: Just stop now," Ban told reporters before his departure.
Lebanese political sources close to the Islamist group said Gaza's Hamas rulers would reject Egypt's proposals to end the offensive Israel said it launched to stop rocket fire from Gaza that causes few casualties but disrupts life in southern Israel.
Hamas's main objections were to a proposed long-term truce and to any ceasefire being put in place before Israel withdrew all its forces from Gaza, one of the sources said.
Israel has rejected a United Nations Security Council call for a truce but said it was ready to discuss further proposals.
GUN BATTLES ERUPT
Despite a world drive to end the fighting, Israel pressed on with its offensive, its tanks closing in on Gaza city, where explosions shook the skies on Tuesday, as gun battles that broke out between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops.
Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Avi Benayahu said Monday Israel was "deeper in the territory" and that reserve units had moved in to hold positions and free up regular troops for thrusts deeper into the city of Gaza.
"We are tightening the encirclement of the city," Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg told reporters touring Israeli positions on Monday.
Three Israeli soldiers were wounded in a "friendly fire" incident in Gaza on Monday night, the military spokesman said.
Violence was also reported in the occupied West Bank, where gunmen shot and wounded four soldiers while shooting at an Israeli vehicle, a military spokesman said.
Palestinian medics said at least 913 people in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli attacks launched since December 27 in the coastal territory. The health minister in Gaza's Hamas-run government said close to 400 of those were women and children.
Israel's casualties in the conflict were 10 soldiers killed and three civilians from rocket and mortar fire aimed from Gaza.
The bloodshed has burst open fragile faultlines in the map of Middle East diplomacy, with the Bush administration in its final week standing behind Israel, Europe pressing Israel to call off its attacks and Arab leaders speaking out against the Jewish state.
SAUDIS ACCUSE ISRAEL
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, an oil power and one of several Arab governments whose pro-American stance is far from popular with its people, accused Israel of "racist extermination."
It said it hoped Bush's successor Barack Obama would work swiftly to resolve the 60-year-old Palestinian issue.
Bush said Monday it was up to Hamas, which won a 2006 parliamentary election and seized control of Gaza 18 months ago, to end the misery of the enclave's 1.5 million people.
"I'm for a sustainable ceasefire, and a definition of sustainable ceasefire is Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel ...I happen to believe the choice is Hamas's to make," Bush said.
Bush said Israel had a right to defend itself but he hoped it would "continue to be mindful of innocent folks" and help expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Egypt, an Arab government close to Washington but with a strong Islamist opposition, is trying to broker a ceasefire to halt the fighting on its northern border.
Israeli leaders, facing a February 10 election, have given few clues on how long they would continue the offensive. Analysts have cited Obama's coming inauguration on January20 as a factor pushing for an end to the fighting.
Hamas negotiators returned to Cairo late on Monday after consulting the leadership in exile in Damascus. Haniyeh, Hamas's leader in Gaza, said the group would negotiate a truce but only if Israel pulled back all its forces and ended a Gaza blockade.
A Lebanese source close to Hamas said the group wanted a truce for a limited time and objected to the presence of any foreign observers at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Israel, backed by its Western allies, says any ceasefire must depend on Hamas halting rocket fire -- 16 landed in Israel on Monday, the army said. Israel also wants measures to stop Hamas from rearming via tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, in an area known as the Philadelphi corridor.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090113/ts_nm/us_palestinians_israel
Topic: Israel tightens grip on urban parts of Gaza (Read 376 times)