Israel rejects call for 48-hour lull in assault on Hamas

Israel rejects call for 48-hour lull in assault on HamasIsrael rejects call for 48-hour lull in assault on HamasJerusalem  - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected Wednesday a proposal for a 48-hour "humanitarian" lull in Israel's assault on the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, saying that the time was not yet ripe to call a halt to the Israeli operations.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had proposed to Israel that it unilaterally halt its assault for 48 hours to give Hamas a chance to end its rocket and mortar attacks as well.

As Israel's Operation "Cast Lead" continued for the fifth day, the Israel Air Force kept on pounding the Gaza Strip and militants in the salient continued showering southern Israel with rockets, striking, among other targets, cities far from the salient which until Tuesday had not come under rocket fire.

Olmert said Israel "did not launch the Gaza offensive only to end it while the rocket fire remains unchanged."

Referring to the proposed truce, he said that "if the right conditions the kind we feel would guarantee better security realities in the south will present themselves, we would be willing to consider it, but we're not there yet."

Earlier, government Spokesman Mark Regev had told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa that Israel would not suspend its offensive until it had achieved its goals.

"Israel wants a sustainable solution. We dont want a band aid that would explode again in one month," he said.

"At this stage we think it is important to continue the pressure on the Hamas military machine," he added

On Wednesday morning Israel Radio quoted unnamed ministers as saying that agreeing to the French proposal would rob the Israeli offensive of its momentum, and allow Hamas to claim victory.

However, he said Israel would also "expand and upgrade humanitarian efforts to support the innocent people of Gaza.

On Wednesday 100 trucks carrying aid, and 1,000 units of blood, were permitted to enter the salient, while 22 Gazans injured in the Israeli assault were allowed to come to Israel for treatment.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the air force had launched 35 attacks on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip between midnight and late afternoon Wednesday.

Targets hit included included tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border, which Israel believes are used to smuggle weapons into the Strip, the office of Hamas leader and deposed prime minister Ismail Haniya, and the Hamas-run ministry of the interior.

Egyptian security officials said Wednesday that around 500 Palestinians had fled the Strip into Egypt following the destruction of part of the border wall between Gaza and Egypt in one of the air raids.

An Egyptian police spokesman said that around 125 of the Gazans had been arrested.

Embattled militants in the salient, meanwhile fired around 35 rockets and mortars at Israel by mid-afternoon Wednesday, a military spokeswoman said.

No fatalities were reported, but at least four of the projectiles - long-range Grad missiles - struck the Israeli city of Beersheba, one of them hitting a vacant high school.

Located almost 40 kilometres from the Gaza Strip and with a population of around 187,000, Beersheba was hit for the first time Tuesday night, in a strike marking the furthest distance that rockets launched from the Strip have ever landed in Israel.

On Monday night the city of Ashdod, about 30 kilometres from the Strip and with a population of 209,000, also came under rocket fire for the first time.

With Beersheba now a target, around one million Israelis are now within range of rockets from the Gaza Strip and the Israeli Army's Home Front Command has ordered all schools within a distance of 40 kilometres from the Strip closed until further notice.

Instructions were also issued warning people not to congregate in open areas and to remain close to shelters.

Ashqelon, a southern Israeli city located around 14 kilometres from the strip and the site of a huge power station which provides the enclave with 60 per cent of its electricity, was also struck Wednesday

"Our operation, called the Oil Spot, will continue and the rocket fire on the Zionist enemy's cities and towns will be widened to avenge the massive massacres committed against our people," the Hamas armed wing said in a statement.

Israel launched the assault on Hamas on Saturday morning, in response to massive rocket and mortar barrages on southern Israeli towns and villages since the end of a six-month ceasefire on December 19.

By Wednesday afternoon, the casualty toll after five days of Israeli airstrikes against Hamas targets in the densely populated strip has reached 392 dead and over 1,900 injured, Palestinian medical officials said.

One quarter of the Palestinian fatalities are civilians, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.

Four Israelis have been killed by Hamas rocket attacks, dozens more injured, and scores have been treated for shock. (dpa)

Regions: