GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A diplomatic
push to end Israel's nearly weeklong offensive in the Gaza Strip gained
momentum
Tuesday, with Egypt's president predicting that airstrikes would
end within hours and Israel's prime minister saying his country
would be a "willing partner" to a cease-fire with the Islamic
militant group Hamas.
As international diplomats raced across the region to cement a deal, a senior Hamas official said an agreement was close even
as relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between the two sides continued.
"We haven't struck the deal yet, but we are progressing and it will most likely be tonight," Moussa Abu Marzouk said Tuesday
from Cairo, where cease-fire talks were being held.
Israeli officials were more circumspect, saying only that "intensive efforts" were under way to end the fighting. Israeli
media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket
fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.
In what appeared to be a last-minute burst of heavy fire, Israeli tanks and gunboats shelled targets late Tuesday, and an
airstrike killed two brothers riding on a motorcycle. The men weren't identified.
The fighting came shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was set to arrive. President Barack Obama
dispatched her to the Mideast from Cambodia, where she had accompanied him on a visit.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, perhaps the most important interlocutor between Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory,
and the Israelis, said the negotiations between the two sides would yield "positive results" during the coming hours.
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.
Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory
that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.
In Brussels, a senior official of the
European Union's foreign service said a cease-fire would include an end
of Israeli airstrikes
and targeted killings in Gaza, the opening of Gaza crossing points
and an end to rocket attacks on Israel. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
to the media.
Violence raged on as the talks continued. An
airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV
station,
Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. The men were
in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf
al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are
involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted
the station's offices, saying it served as a Hamas communications
post.
By Tuesday, 133 Palestinians, including at least 54 civilians, were killed since Israel began an air onslaught that has so
far included nearly 1,500 strikes. Some 840 people have been wounded, including 225 children, Gaza health officials said.
Four Israelis, including an 18-year-old
soldier who was struck by rocket fire on Tuesday, have also been killed
and dozens
wounded since the fighting began last week, the numbers possibly
kept down by a rocket-defense system that Israel developed
with U.S. funding. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at
Israel this week, the military said.
Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a
house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people
and badly
damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman
Micky Rosenfeld said. In other violence, a 60-year-old Israeli
woman was seriously wounded in a firebombing attack as she drove
in the West Bank, police said.
With the death toll rising, the international community stepped up efforts to bring a halt to the fighting that began last
Wednesday with an Israel's assassination of the Hamas military chief.
"If a long-term solution can be put in place
through diplomatic means, then Israel would be a willing partner to
such a solution.
But if stronger military action proves necessary to stop the
constant barrage of rockets, Israel wouldn't hesitate to do what
is necessary to defend our people," Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said during a joint press conference in Jerusalem
with visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.
Ban condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
"Further escalation benefits no one," he said.
Minutes before Ban's arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second
time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.
Jerusalem had previously been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets — and an unlikely target because it is home to the
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.
Earlier Tuesday, a man identified as Hamas'
militant commander urged his fighters to keep up attacks on Israel.
Speaking from
hiding on Hamas-run TV and radio, Mohammed Deif said Hamas "must
invest all resources to uproot this aggressor from our land,"
a reference to Israel.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of
Gaza City along specific roads. The army "is not targeting any of you, and doesn't want to harm you or your families," the
leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."
Clinton was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu
in Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and
Egyptian
leaders in Cairo. Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of
Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate
truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they
entered the territory.
"Turkey is standing by you," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.
"Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza."
It was unclear how diplomatic efforts to
achieve a cease-fire and stave off a threatened Israeli ground invasion
into Gaza
were hampered by the hard-to-bridge positions staked out by both
sides — and by the persistent attacks. Thousands of Israeli
soldiers have been dispatched to the Gaza border in case of a
decision to invade.
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.
Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday that Israel
was exploring a diplomatic solution, but wouldn't balk at a broader
military operation.
"I prefer a diplomatic solution," Netanyahu said in a statement after meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle,
who was 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."
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."
The conflict erupted last week, when a
resurgence in rocket fire from Gaza set off the Israeli offensive, which
included hundreds
of airstrikes on militants' underground rocket launchers and
weapons' stores.
The onslaught turned deadlier over the weekend, as airstrikes began targeting the homes of suspected Hamas activists, leading
to a spike in civilian casualties. Israel sent warnings in some cases, witnesses said, but in other instances missiles hit
suddenly, burying residents under the rubble of their homes.
Hamas is deeply rooted in densely populated
Gaza, and the movement's activists live in the midst of ordinary Gazans.
Israel
says militants are using civilians as human shields, both for
their own safety and to launch rocket strikes from residential
neighborhoods.
The conflict showed signs of spilling into the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian protesters in the town of Jenin clashed
with Israeli forces during a demonstration against Israel's Gaza offensive.
Two Palestinian protesters were killed in
anti-Israel demonstrations in the West Bank on Monday, according to
Palestinian
officials. Separate clashes occurred Tuesday in Ramallah, the seat
of the Palestinian government, during the funeral for one
of the dead.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, now governs from the West Bank. Abbas claims
to represent both areas, and there is widespread sympathy among West Bank Palestinians for their brethren in Gaza.