Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israel edged closer Thursday toward a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, but also intensified contacts with foreign leaders seeking a diplomatic solution to the Gaza crisis.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled to Paris to discuss "different ideas about what can be done on the diplomatic level" with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said Yigal Palmor, a senior advisor to Livni.

Gaza  - Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, radiated defiance on Wednesday night when he made his first televised speech after days of intense Israeli air raids on the salient.

Outwardly, Hamas, which has administered the Strip since June 2007, exudes confidence, saying that despite the Israeli attacks, it is still unbroken. The organization's military capability is more or less intact and its militants not only continue to fire missiles, but have been targeting cities deep inside Israel, which previously had not been hit.

Paris - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni repeated her government's rejection of a ceasefire with militants in the Gaza Strip during meetings with French officials in Paris on Thursday.

Livni's visit to France was overshadowed from the start by an Israeli rejection of a call by the European Union for a 48-hour truce in the hostilities. Israel argued that it is the victim of terrorist attacks.

Cairo - After six day of continuous Israeli air raids on the nearby Gaza Strip, the Egyptian border town of Rafah has become a ghost town as residents flee the city.

Airstrikes in neighboring Gaza have shattered glass in the buildings of Rafah. Electricity had also been cut because of the raids.

Thus, Israeli raid are causing pain not just for Gazans, but also for Egyptians as well. The town of Rafah is split by the border, with half of it in Gaza. Many have family on the other side.

The town, which usually makes money by smuggling goods into Gaza, has now been transformed into a transit point for aid to the Gaza strip.

New York  - The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to spend the last hours of the year discussing the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The closed door meeting beginning at 6 pm (2300 GMT) came at the request of the Arab League, which had earlier urged the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting and take an immediate decision to halt the Israeli attacks on the Strip.

Gaza - The head of Hamas' government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, called for an unconditional end to the five-day old Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip as the first step toward ending the violence.

Haniya, who gave a speech while in hiding that was broadcast by the pro-Hamas al-Aqsa television, also demanded and end to the blockade of Gaza, the reopening of crossings, and talks on Palestinian reconciliation.

Haniya and his Hamas lieutenants have gone underground over fears of being being targeted by Israeli warplanes.