Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israel resisted mounting international calls Wednesday to cease hostilities in the Gaza Strip, with its security cabinet rejecting a French proposal for a
48-hour truce to allow humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.

Vowing to continue until its goals were achieved and a "durable" solution was found to seven years of rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants from the coastal salient, there was no let up in Israeli airstrikes on the fifth day of the offensive.

Tel Aviv, Dec. 31 : Israel has rejected an immediate 48-hour cease-fire against Gaza militants.

According to Fox News, the Hamas continues to fire rockets close to the country''s heartland, prompting Israel to send warplanes on Wednesday to demolish the smuggling tunnels that serve as the lifeline of the militant outfit.

Gaza officials have put the death toll at 374 since the offensive began on Saturday.

The Hamas says some 200 uniformed Hamas security forces have been killed. The United Nation says at least 60 civilians have died. Four Israelis have been killed by militant rocket fire, including three civilians.

Tel Aviv, Dec. 30 : Israeli aircraft kept up a relentless assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Tuesday, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander as thousands of Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, massed along the border and waited for a signal to attack.

Fox News reported Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as telling President Shimon Peres on Tuesday that the current, aerial phase of the operation is "the first of several" that have been approved, an Olmert spokesman said.

Tel Aviv  - A Palestinian armed with a knife infiltrated a Jewish settlement on the central West Bank Monday morning and stabbed three Israelis before being shot by an armed settler, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.

She said one of the three Jewish settlers stabbed was in serious condition, while the other two were moderately and lightly wounded.

The spokeswoman said the attacker was apparently killed after being shot.

The incident occurred in the settlement Qiryat Sefer, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Tel Aviv  - Israel has agreed to partially open the crossing points into the Gaza Strip, to allow aid convoys to enter the salient, Israeli media reported Wednesday morning.

The crossing points have been shut due to ongoing rocket fire on southern Israel from the enclave, following the end Friday morning of a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Gaza militant groups.

According to the Israeli Haaretz daily, the convoy Wednesday will include five trucks from Egypt, which requested Israel open the Kerem Shalom crossing to let the convoy pass, and 30 from the West Bank containing goods supplied by international organizations.

Cairo/Gaza/Tel Aviv - Hamas is willing to renew a ceasefire with Israel without adding any new conditions, a senior official of the Islamist organization said in an interview published Tuesday.

"The Palestinians want to give a chance to the Egyptian mediators. Hamas is ready for a truce, if Israel sticks to the terms of the June agreement," Mahmoud al-Zahar told the Egyptian al-Ahram daily.

A one-day ceasefire, called on Monday "would be extended if positive developments were found," he said.