Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Just hours after Jerusalem signaled it might give Franco-Egyptian diplomacy a chance on Wednesday, the Security Cabinet gave the IDF the green light to continue Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
After ceasing fire for three hours in order to allow humanitarian goods into the Strip, both sides renewed hostilities after 4 p.m., with Hamas firing two Grad-type rockets into downtown Beersheba and the IAF immediately attacking the rocket launchers.
Meanwhile, Israel clarified that when the cabinet stated it viewed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's offer "favorably" earlier in the day, it did not mean Israel wholeheartedly accepted it.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Israel was ready to accept parts of the offer which were in line with its own interests - a complete cessation in terror activity and a halt to weapons smuggling through the Gaza-Egypt border.
Earlier, following a four hour meeting, the Security Cabinet had issued a statement indicating that it was looking favorably upon French, US and Egyptian efforts to broker a Gaza cease-fire based on the establishment of an international mechanism to stop the arms smuggling.
"Israel is working to improve the security situation in the south," the statement said, thanking Egypt and Sarkozy for "their efforts to stop the terrorist activities from Gaza, and to stop the arms smuggling from Egypt to the Gaza Strip."
Israel, the statement said, viewed the dialogue between Egyptian and Israeli officials to further this issue "favorably."
However, the Associated Press quoted Sarkozy as saying that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had accepted the proposal. Israeli officials would not confirm Sarkozy's statement.
At the end of the bloodiest 24 hours of the operation Tuesday, during which the IDF lost five soldiers, senior defense officials revealed that the army was prepared to deploy in the entire Gaza Strip, if necessary.
Despite increasing international pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops, a senior official confirmed that plans had been drawn up to move troops into southern Gaza as well.
The cease-fire plan proposed by Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received the endorsement of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday night.
According to Israeli officials, the cease-fire proposal was based on the establishment of an international force to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Sinai into Gaza, which would see an increase in the number of US military engineers already on the Egyptian side of the border.
The IDF is conditioning its acceptance of a new cease-fire with Hamas on the establishment of such a supervision mechanism in the Gaza Strip and along the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent the smuggling of weaponry and explosives from Egypt.
Egypt said on Tuesday night that it was proposing an immediate cease-fire, followed by talks on long-term arrangements for borders and crossings.
Olmert, on a tour of the South Tuesday, laid out the principles for an end to Operation Cast Lead.
"It will stop when the conditions that are essential for Israel's security are met," Olmert said. "First and foremost, all terrorist operations against us must stop. The strengthening of the terrorist organizations via the smuggling of war material from Egypt into Gaza must also stop."
Herb Keinon, Yaakov Katz and AP contributed to this report
