DIPLOMATS PUSH SYRIA - DAY 11 IN GAZA

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

JUST REMEMBER THE BIAS MEDIA CAN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ISRAEL BUT WE AS CHRISTIANS KNOW WE MUST STICK UP FOR ISRAEL AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE SINS OF THEIR ENEMIES WHO WANT EVERY JEW ELIMINATED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

THE MEDIA CLAIMS ISRAELI POUNDING,MEANWHILE HAMAS HAS SHOT 10,516 ROCKETS ETC INTO ISRAELI CITIES SINCE 2001. AND WHAT HAS THE WORLD DONE,IGNORED EVERY FALLIN ROCKET INTO ISRAEL. BUT IF BENNY HINN IS CORRECT 500,000 HAMAS GAZANS COULD BE KILLED IN THIS WAR OR 1/3RD OF HAMAS MURDERERS.

PAT ROBERTSON'S 2009 PREDICTIONS
-America will become useless as a world leader (not trusted anymore).
-Americas economy will recover pretty swift by 2nd quarter.
-The dollar to go down dramatically causing hyper inflation.
-America will become a Socialist country due to the economic pain of the people.
-More and more power will be givin to Washington.
-Obama will restructure the Economy like the 30's was done.
-Gold to become $1,900.00 an ounce.
-Oil $300.00 a barrel.
-Americas weak leadership will lead to World dictators ruling.
-Russia will be the most dangerous and lead a coalition to control the Mideast Oil.
-Pat thinks ezekiel 38+39 war could be at hand.
-Israel is entering a period of extreme crises,hated by the world,but God's protection will be with them as they get flack for protecting themselves from bombs.
-The Whole of Islam is weakening.
-Bloodshed has turned many against Islam and many muslims will be saved now.
-Great destructions will become common place around the World.
-Misery will be wide spread.
-People will want answers and millions will be saved as a result of happenings.
-The Gospel will be accepted by many as times get worse and worse and destructions get worse and worse.
-God will do incredible miracles this year.

BENNY HINNS DREAM ABOUT ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR.

ISRAEL is facing its most dangerous time ever.
A lot of HAMAS casualties,possibly 1/3rd to die.
If 1/3rd of all GAZA dies 500,000 will be dead.
Benny believes this is the beginning of the Ezekiel 38-39 GOG-Magog war.
Benny believes America will not help Israel due to economic difficulties.
Benny believes RUSSIA is getting ready to march to israel.

THAT MAKES 3 of US,BENNY HINN,PAT ROBERTSON AND MYSELF THAT BELIEVE EZEKIEL 38+39 WAR OF RUSSIA,ARABS AND MUSLIMS AGAINST ISRAEL IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.


Diplomats push Syria to pressure ally Hamas By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer JAN 6,09

DAMASCUS, Syria – France's president sought Syrian help Tuesday to bring a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to the United Nations for meetings with Arab and European leaders.The diplomacy drive showed little gains, though, as fighting in Gaza between the militant Palestinian group Hamas and Israeli forces raged for an 11th day, with almost 600 dead.In the middle of a whirlwind Mideast tour, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged his hosts in Syria to pressure Hamas to help end the fighting. Syria, along with Iran, is a key backer of Hamas, and it hosts the exiled political leadership of the group and other radical Palestinian factions.Syria must help us to convince Hamas to choose the voice of reason and peace, Sarkozy said, adding there can be no military solution.Syrian President Bashar Assad did not respond to Sarkozy's call, instead slamming the Israeli offensive in Gaza as an aggression that must halt.Assad said he agreed with Sarkozy on the need for a quick resolution to the humanitarian tragedy and for a cease-fire, Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of the blockade of Gaza. He made no mention of Hamas stopping rocket attacks on Israel.In the past, Assad refused Israeli and U.S. demands to drop support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, saying armed resistance against the Israeli occupation is justified.

Sarkozy already talked with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli leaders and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his tour. He arrived later Tuesday in Lebanon and planned to return to Egypt in the evening.Egyptian officials also increased pressure on the Syria-based Hamas leadership to accept a cease-fire.Egypt, which has a peace deal with Israel has sometimes played a mediator role between Israel and Hamas, wants Hamas to cooperate with international efforts to end the Gaza conflict, Egyptian officials close to the negotiations said Tuesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.Egypt's influential intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, and a delegation of Syria-based Hamas leaders spoke in Cairo on Tuesday.The message Hamas is getting (from Suleiman) is that without a cease-fire the Palestinians will be in a grave danger and everything they have achieved so far will be gone, one of the Egyptian officials said.
Meanwhile, Rice hoped to broker a sustainable cease-fire as soon as possible at the United Nations. She planned to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.Rice also was scheduled to talk with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan as well as her British and French counterparts, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner. Meetings with Arab officials were expected Wednesday.Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco planned meetings with envoys from other Arab nations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council members. Some Arab nations pressed the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.Also involved in the diplomatic push was international Mideast envoy Tony Blair, who said Tuesday in Jerusalem that the key to ending the violence in Gaza was ensuring that weapons were no longer being smuggled into Gaza for Hamas.In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for Gaza's borders to be opened Monday. He said he had been talking to other world leaders to push for an immediate cease-fire.A European Union delegation, including foreign policy chief Javier Solana, was touring the Middle East. In Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims and tourists he wanted to encourage efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians to sit down together in peace talks. The Vatican has said the pope would like to go the Holy Land on a pilgrimage this spring, but no concrete plans have been made. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.

Doctors stuck at bottleneck on Egypt-Gaza border By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer JAN 6,09

RAFAH, Egypt – Greek anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie and another doctor arrived at this border crossing loaded with medical supplies to help Gazans wounded in the Israeli offensive. Instead, they have waited at the border for days.On Tuesday, a representative from a Norwegian medical aid organization was allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from Rafah. But most doctors have been denied entry by Egyptian authorities and spend their days drinking tea and coffee at a small, dusty cafe near the crossing's metal gates.This is a shame, said Mognie, who used his vacation to travel from Greece to try to help in Gaza. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won't let us. This is crazy, said Mognie, who has worked in conflict zones from Iraq to Somalia.Gaza's few hospitals have been swamped by more than 2,400 wounded in Israel's 11-day campaign to stop Hamas militants from launching rockets into Israel. Almost 600 Palestinians have been killed. Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.Mognie and his colleague, both from the Greek organization Doctors for Peace, were the last in their group of six Greek doctors to remain at the Rafah border after arriving last Friday with medical supplies. The others returned home after being continually rebuffed by the Egyptian border guards.Three Norwegian medical personnel, including the one who crossed on Tuesday, have been allowed into Gaza from Egypt.Israel and Egypt first closed their borders with Gaza after Hamas took control of the area in June 2007. The Egyptian closure has been seen by some as abetting Israel's siege of the crowded strip, home to 1.4 million people.Since Israel's offensive, Egypt has taken in a trickle of wounded Palestinians through the crossing at Rafah. The Egyptian government, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas, has said it would only open Rafah if moderate Palestinian forces of President Mahmoud Abbas are in charge of the crossing.

There have been increasing calls for Egypt to ease the border bottleneck — where aid convoys first have to unload cargo from Egyptian trucks before it is loaded onto Palestinian ones and taken into the strip.Palestinian ambulances are not allowed beyond the Egyptian border crossing. Patients are taken out of the often poorly equipped Palestinian ambulances and transferred on gurneys to Egyptian ones.At least 20 wounded Palestinians were brought to Egypt on Tuesday, bringing the total transferred to 143 since the start of the offensive, said Mohammed Arafat, a Palestinian Authority representative in Rafah.The day before, Palestinian doctor Abed el-Qader Lubbad arrived at the border in one of the ambulances transporting patients from Gaza. Of the eight patients he ferried, one who was seriously wounded died on the way, said Lubbad, who works in the intensive care unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza.Obstetrician Jemilah Mahmood, the president of Mercy Malaysia, said her group worked with the Egyptian Red Crescent to transfer about $100,000 worth of medical supplies to Gaza on Monday and planned to send another shipment next week.

But while supplies can get through, Mahmood said neither she nor her colleagues were allowed to cross.Can you imagine how many women are hurt and how few women doctors there are? she said. All of us are sitting at the border.Associated Press writer Ashraf Sweilam contributed to this report.

Israel shells near UN school, killing at least 30 By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writers JAN 6,09

GAZA CITY, Gaza – Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.The Israeli army said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and responded. It accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of cynically using civilians as human shields. Area residents confirmed the account, saying militants were seen staging attacks from the area.Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and a diplomatic push to broker a cease-fire, Israeli said it would push on with the offensive against Hamas.Israeli ground forces edged closer to two major Gaza towns, and a total of 70 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said. A top U.N. official called for an investigation into the mounting civilian death toll.Past Israeli ground offensives have been cut short when an errant shell or missile hit a civilian center, leading to international outcries that forced Israel to stand down.The explosions marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack.It was the deadliest assault since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group that has killed more than 600 Palestinians, according to local hospital officials. Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.

There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized, John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the compound of a U.N. school killed three people in a courtyard. The school has served as a shelter for Gaza City refugees fleeing the blistering 11-day offensive.A Palestinian rocket —one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said 36 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a second U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.In a statement, the Israeli army said an initial investigation found that mortar shells were fired from within the school at IDF soldiers. The force responded with mortars at the source of fire. The Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields.The army said two Hamas militants — Imad Abu Askar and Hasan Abu Askar — were among the dead.

Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. Israel then opened fire.The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said the Abu Askar brothers were known low-level Hamas militants.The attack occurred at midafternoon, when many people in the densely populated Jebaliya refugee camp were out and about. Many of the refugees apparently stepped outside the shelter to get some air, thinking an area around a school was safe.Palestinian militants frequently fire from residential areas. However, Mohammed Nassar, a medic who treated the wounded, said he saw no gunmen among the casualties.Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed gruesome scenes at the hospital. At first, medics carried in at least five younger boys who were laid out on the hospital floor. It was not clear whether they were still alive.

Other medics then started unloading bodies of older men who had been stacked up in the back of an ambulance, three high, and were dragged without stretchers. One man's legs had been turned into bloody stumps that dragged on the ground as he was pulled from the ambulance. In later scenes, the emergency room was packed, with all beds occupied and barely a patch of ground unoccupied by either a body or a doctor. In other rooms, there were bloodstains on the floor and other bodies lying there, with medics running to take pulses. I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in, said Fares Ghanem, another hospital official. A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces.Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were among the dead. I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead, he said. In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded.He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the same area near the school. U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza are not targeted. Speaking shortly after the first attack, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, demanded an investigation.

As one of the most densely populated places in the world, it is clear that more civilians will be killed, he said. These tragic incidents need to be investigated, and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must held accountable.In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it the darkest moment yet for the Middle East. He said he had been in touch with world leaders, including from Egypt and Turkey, to discuss ways to forge a cease-fire. The international Red Cross said an ambulance post was hit as well on Tuesday, injuring one medical worker. Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend. Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot on Tuesday. United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 U.N.-run schools they have turned into makeshift refuges. U.N. food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centers. Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the new Israeli positions. Israel already has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city. The rising civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say that with distribution disrupted, food supplies are running thin. This is not a crisis, it's a disaster, said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people. He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from Tuesday. Gaza's overall population is 1.4 million people. Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile. Visiting southern Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to stop the offensive soon, but said it would depend on Hamas' willingness to stop attacks and stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from neighboring Egypt. We have no interest in endlessly continuing the campaign. It will stop when the conditions that are essential for Israel's security are met, he said in the rocket-scarred town of Sderot. The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. Hamas is believed to have 20,000 fighters. Israeli forces have seized the main Gaza highway in several places, cutting the strip into northern, southern and central sectors. Israel also has taken over high-rise buildings in Gaza City and destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels — Hamas' main lifeline — along the Egyptian border. A high-level European Union delegation met with President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in a futile bid to end the violence. Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner acknowledged Israel's right to self-defense, but said its response was disproportionate. We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian cease-fire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed, she said, according to a statement from Peres' office. Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies. French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Israel after a day of meetings with leaders.

Sarkozy continued to Damascus, urging Syria on Tuesday to pressure Hamas to end the fighting. His Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, slammed the Israeli assault on the coastal strip as a war crime and barbaric, an aggression that Israel must halt. In Washington, the State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was traveling to the United Nations Tuesday to try to broker a sustainable cease-fire. She planned meetings with Arab and European diplomats to lobby for a three-tiered U.S. truce proposal and will then attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, spokesman Sean McCormack said. Key elements demanded by the U.S.: an end to rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and securing border crossings between Gaza and Israel and between Gaza and Egypt. Israel's operation has angered many across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been intimately involved in Mideast peacemaking.
Barzak reported from Gaza City, Weizman from Jerusalem.

European Peace Efforts on Gaza Hit Roadblocks By BRUCE CRUMLEY JAN 6,09

CNBC Efforts by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders to broker a cease-fire in Gaza have so far come to naught. The problem confronting them, and any potential peacemakers in the region, is that the Israelis don't want a truce that falls short of their goal of de-fanging Hamas, while the Palestinian radical group is hardly ready to run up the white flag. We know perfectly well that all this is difficult, and the European effort is risky, Sarkozy said on Monday, after his meetings with Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli leaders made virtually no headway toward a truce. But if we don't take the initiative to come and find paths to peace when confronted with such a dramatic situation as this, when would we? The approach of Sarkozy and Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg in their parallel missions was basic enough: Win agreement for an immediate, 48-hour cease-fire by both Israel and Hamas to allow humanitarian aid to enter and circulate throughout Gaza and treat civilian victims caught in the violence. Once the guns were silent, a longer-term peace process was to flow from that, beginning with the opening and policing of Israeli and Egyptian border crossings into Gaza, lifting the crippling economic blockade of the area that Hamas has cited as its prime reason for abandoning the previous cease-fire that had kept things largely quiet from June to November. To accommodate Israel's security concerns, the Europeans are also proposing the deployment of international troops to prevent the smuggling of weapons that would allow Hamas to re-arm for future attacks on Israel. But that proved a tough sell to the main players. First off, Israel has no interest in stopping its military mission until its primary aims have been achieved - and those aims appear to be evolving from simply stopping rocket fire into southern Israel into what Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calls changing the equation in Gaza - i.e. hobbling Hamas to the point that it loses control of Gaza. The Israelis believe they have Hamas on the ropes, and may be in no hurry to back off from trying to deal a mortal blow to the radical group. That means their diplomatic posture will be to seek more time for their military operation, and then to hold out for truce terms that essentially codify a military disabling of Hamas.

But Israel's agenda is hardly the only obstacle. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who met with Sarkozy on Monday, rebuffed the idea of international forces patrolling his border in search of smugglers sending weapons into Gaza. Mubarak insists Egyptian police and military have choked off that supply and that the weapons now come by sea - although Israeli officials see the tunnels from Egypt as the primary smuggling route. Mubarak is hostile to Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt's banned but popular Muslim Brotherhood, and has long insisted that he will only open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza if the Palestinian side is policed by security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Sarkozy ran into further trouble on Monday afternoon when he met in Ramallah with Mahmoud Abbas, and sought to ingratiate himself with the Palestinian Authority President by declaring that Hamas is to blame for the suffering of the Palestinians. That may have been music to the ears of Abbas, but he is a marginal figure in the conflict currently raging, and Sarkozy's comments prompted Hamas - the key Palestinian player in Gaza - to denounce the total bias of Sarkozy's initiative. What's more, by having followed the U.S. lead in declaring Hamas off-limits because it is a terrorist organization, the E.U.'s own rules now prevent it from engaging directly with the organization in a mediating role. Sarkozy played his diplomatic trump card on Tuesday, visiting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad - the key regional patron of Hamas, who also owes the French President a favor for his controversial diplomatic rehabilitation of the Syrian strongman last summer - to plead for Syria to weigh on the actors, notably Hamas, so that peace may return. Assad's response, denouncing Israeli war crimes in Gaza, suggested little enthusiasm for holding Hamas' feet to the fire. The limited traction of the efforts by Sarkozy and the Czechs, who currently hold the rotating E.U. presidency, is a reminder that the diplomatic centers of influence in the current conflict lie elsewhere. Europe has no real influence to dramatically change things in a region where the U.S. remains the only power anyone listens to, says Philippe Moreau Defarges, a European affairs specialist at the Institute for International Relations in Paris. Still, Europe had to try something in the face of two dire factors: America's irresponsible refusal to get involved now; and the terrible failure of Bush administration policy in the region that the current crisis arose from.Indeed, Washington is not just remaining on the diplomatic sidelines; it is actively restraining the efforts of others to force an immediate halt to the Israeli operation. Sarkozy was angered by the Bush Administration's move last Saturday to block a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate halt to hostilities. Those who applaud today, Sarkozy growled, won't be there tomorrow to get us out of this mess. Nor will the European efforts, however. Achieving a truce will require involvement by those with leverage over the key players. It's evident the movement we're seeking to create needs the support and assistance of the big actors in the area, a French diplomat involved in the current initiative says. That means Egypt, Turkey and Syria using the different pull they have - especially with Hamas - and the U.S. in its unique relationship with Israel.

Analysis: In Gaza fight, Iran lurks in background By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer Sally Buzbee,JAN 6,09

CAIRO, Egypt – Israel's fight with Hamas in Gaza, like the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon two years ago, is not just a struggle over the Palestinian issue but a broader proxy battle between Western allies and Iran for the very future of the Middle East.Unlike the Lebanon war, the fighting in Gaza contains faint stirrings of change across the region that could bring a more hopeful outcome for Israel, the Palestinians and the West.Chief among them is the inauguration of a new U.S. president. The Bush administration had long ago lost most ability to get even allies in the Middle East to robustly push U.S. goals. Incoming President Barack Obama won't, of course, instantly change Arab resentment toward America, and he has made clear that he will continue with traditionally strong U.S. support for Israel.But Obama and the team he has chosen might be more willing to accept the type of arrangement that many believe is needed to relieve the suffering in Gaza and figure out a political solution. That will likely involve giving Hamas some face-saving partial authority role in the crowded territory it seized in 2007 after winning elections. That alone might end the blockade of Gaza that has frustrated the hopes of Palestinians there, who have long had little ability to work or move about or live normal lives. That anger and dismay has boosted support for Hamas.Supporters of such a policy, including many Europeans, think it is the only way to lure Hamas toward eventual political accommodation with Israel, whose right to exist is rejected by the militants. They note that Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel's northern border seem loath to engage Israel again militarily since gaining a larger role in Lebanon's politics in the wake of the 2006 war.

It is surely a huge gamble that militants will trade political participation for violence. But such a tactic has worked in the past with other, once-radical Palestinian factions.Obama also has indicated he may be willing to talk to Iran — a country most view as key to the overall Middle East puzzle. The Islamic Republic gained significant regional clout after its protege, Hezbollah, held out against Israel in the 2006 war. That in turn directly hurt the credibility and influence of many Arab moderates.Iran is controlled by hard-liners whom the West accuses of seeking a nuclear capacity, and its president has called for an end to Israeli rule or for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map. Iran also is said by Israel and the United States to provide economic and military support to Hamas and Hezbollah militants.But factions in Iran have also long wanted some type of deal and recognition from the United States. In that reality could lie the seeds of negotiating power on issues the West cares about, such as Israel and alleged Iranian support for Islamic militants — as long as the U.S. bargains tough and with its eyes wide open.More subtly, two recent trends could change the overall dynamic of Iran seemingly ascendant in the Middle East, while the West's Arab allies stumble and appear weak.For one, Iran is poorer today than just a few months ago because of the plummet in the price of oil and its own economic mismanagement. The financial crisis does means its leaders must pay more attention to domestic woes and their own dissatisfied public, and not just on foreign issues and the Palestinians or Hezbollah. The hard-line president faces a tough re-election battle this summer.

Second and more profoundly, the Iraq war is going better. That may seem totally disconnected from Gaza for now, but it is, in fact, hugely important for the immediate and long-term future of the entire Middle East.While violence in Iraq is sure to continue, there is now a definite end game in sight — the fact that the United States and Iraq have agreed on a general timetable for the drawdown of many U.S. troops, and reached a deal for more Iraqi sovereignty.For American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, long dismayed by what they saw as a misguided U.S. occupation of Iraq, that change will create great relief.Importantly, it gives them more credibility with other Arabs. No longer can they be criticized for their roles as stooges of the U.S. Iraq policy, and that in turn could strengthen their willingness — and their hand — to dig in for tough diplomacy on Gaza.All along, Hamas and Hezbollah have played the spoiler role with great glee, provoking and poking at Israel, and when it responds with attacks, trumpeting that only they defend the Palestinians and their children.One of Hamas' strengths has been its ability to criticize more moderate Arabs for weakness and an inability to improve the lives of Palestinians.Indeed, Arab allies have been divided internally, more interested in scoring points against each other and competing on diplomacy — mainly Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar — than in pulling together in the same direction to solve the big issues. The Western and moderate Arab goal is to turn around that dynamic and convince the Arab public that political accommodation — that is, peace deals — are the real solution, not the current path of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Among the hopeful signs: This time, Egypt spoke strongly against Hamas, and even Saudi Arabia's cautious foreign minister obliquely blamed the militants for the fighting. Turkey is ideally placed to bring all players to the table if it gets some stronger backing from the West — Israel, the moderates, the militants and their backers. But it will still take hard-nosed, smart and extremely committed diplomacy from the West and from the United States in particular. Sally Buzbee is Chief of Middle East News, based in Cairo, for The Associated Press.

U.S. seeks immediate Gaza ceasefire with conditions By Arshad Mohammed JAN 06,09

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it wanted an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but U.S. officials quickly stressed they would not budge from their stance that it must be durable, sustainable and indefinite.The United States had previously steered away from the immediate ceasefire language embraced by many of its European and Arab allies, who are gathering for a U.N. Security Council meeting on how to end Israel's 11-day-old offensive in Gaza.U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to go to the U.N. meeting, and the comments by her spokesman Sean McCormack, initially appeared to signal flexibility in the Bush administration's stance but U.S. officials denied this.We would like an immediate ceasefire, absolutely, McCormack told reporters. An immediate ceasefire that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited.The Bush administration has consistently supported Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and McCormack's comments stopped well short of calling on Israel to halt its offensive.Rice tentatively decided on Monday to attend the U.N. session in New York, McCormack said, before Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians on Tuesday at a U.N. school in Gaza where civilians had taken shelter.More than 600 Palestinians have been killed and at least 2,700 wounded since Israel began the campaign last month with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks by Hamas Islamist militants on its southern towns. Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed.

THREE ELEMENTS

Washington has vowed not to support any ceasefire with a specific time frame, saying there was little point in a cessation of hostilities without putting a stop to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.Barack Obama, who takes over as U.S. president from George W. Bush on January 20, broke his silence about the violence on Tuesday, saying the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and in Israel was a source of deep concern for me.He declined further comment, saying he believed that only Bush should be the voice of U.S. foreign policy for now.The Bush administration has said its efforts will focus on stopping rocket fire into Israel, ending the smuggling of arms into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt and reopening border crossings to permit goods to flow into the coastal strip.There isn't a whole lot of flexibility here, said one U.S. official who spoke on condition that he not be identified. It's going to be hard for us to support anything that doesn't deal with those three elements.Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza after Hamas seized control of the region in 2007. Israel's frequent closure of Gaza's border crossings increased hardships for the aid-dependent territory's 1.5 million residents.

RESOLUTION TO TAKE TIME

U.S. officials said Rice's U.N. trip in part aimed to blunt possible accusations that the United States was indifferent to the suffering of Gazans had she stayed away.They also played down the chances of a resolution emerging from Tuesday evening's Security Council meeting.Security Council diplomats said it would take at least several days to prepare a ceasefire resolution for a vote. The end of this week at the earliest, more likely next week, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Arab foreign ministers in New York on Tuesday to work out the details of a ceasefire regime that would include international monitors along Gaza's borders. The Arabs are advocating an immediate halt to the fighting, diplomats said, while U.S. officials have made clear they did not back a ceasefire without mechanisms to prevent rocket attacks against Israel and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Once an agreement on those mechanisms is reached -- and it must be acceptable to Israel -- that deal would form the basis of a Security Council resolution which the French will most likely draft and negotiate, the diplomats said. Rice and Kouchner will be joined by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several Arab foreign ministers at special Security Council meetings on the Gaza crisis on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, Matt Spetalnick and Andrew Sullivan in Washington and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Obama breaks silence on Gaza, voices concern By Steve Holland Steve Holland JAN 6,09

KVUE-TV Austin Play Video Barack Obama Video: Burris blocked from Senate Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, breaking his silence about the Gaza war, expressed deep concern on Tuesday about civilian deaths in Gaza and in Israel and vowed to push for Middle East peace when he takes power.Speaking after Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, Obama said the loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern for me.Obama otherwise said he would adhere to his principle that only U.S. President George W. Bush would speak for American foreign policy at this time, but said he would have plenty more to say after his January 20 inauguration.He expressed deep concern about the conflict but made no mention of a durable, sustainable and not time-limited ceasefire sought by the Bush administration.Nonetheless, he gave his most extensive comments about the Gaza conflict, responding to criticism from some commentators in the region that he had been too quiet about a top foreign policy challenge that will greet him as soon as he walks into the White House.Obama was accused by critics both of siding with Israel with his silence or of failing to stand with the Jewish state as it seeks to repel rocket attacks from the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Speaking to reporters, Obama pledged to work for a resolution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an issue that has bedeviled several American presidents.After January 20 I'm going to have plenty to say about the issue, and I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign, that starting at the beginning of our administration, we are going to be engaged effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, he said. That's something I am committed to.
Until then, he said, his job is to monitor the situation, and his aides are keeping him constantly up to date on developments.(Reporting by Steve Holland, Editing by Sandra Maler)

Rice traveling to UN to push Gaza cease-fire By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer JAN 6,09

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to New York and the United Nations on Tuesday in a bid to broker a sustainable cease-fire as soon as possible to end the crisis in Gaza.Rice plans to hold several separate meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab and European foreign ministers to lobby for a three-tiered U.S. truce proposal and will then attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.The talks are intended to further her efforts to bring about a cease-fire that is sustainable and durable concerning Gaza, he told reporters. The U.S. wants to see three key elements in any agreement: an end to rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and securing border crossings between Gaza and Israel and between Gaza and Egypt.In addition to Abbas, Rice will see Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, whose country favors a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that is ensured by international monitors, as well as her British and French counterparts, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner. Meetings with Arab officials are expected on Wednesday.Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco planned meetings with envoys from other Arab nations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council members. Some Arab nations want the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.McCormack said it was not clear if the council would adopt any resolution on Tuesday and said the United States could only support an immediate cease-fire if it is not time-limited and addresses the three U.S. points.We would like to see the violence end today, he said. But we also want to see it end in a way that is sustainable and durable.At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino repeated that position.We want to get to a durable cease-fire as soon as possible, Perino said. And if that is immediate, then we would certainly welcome that.

Rice will be talking up the proposal aimed at achieving a lasting halt to Hamas rocket attacks that have pinpointed southern Israeli towns. The American plan would also limit a network of tunnels that have been used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons and contraband, and would also contain a third proposal pressed by Hamas — reopening crossing points on the Israeli border that have been restricted and often closed by Israeli soldiers.On Monday, President Bush said that the violence in Gaza must stop, but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again.More than 500 Palestinians, including at least 100 civilians, have been killed in the fighting and during Israeli bombing runs. Hamas rockets and combat inside Gaza have killed at least nine Israelis.

Chronology of Israel's relationship with Gaza By The Associated Press – Tue Jan 6, 11:02 am ET

• June 1967: Israel captures the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip during six-day Mideast war. An Israeli census put the population at 380,000, at least half of whom were refugees from Israel. Today the population stands at about 1.5 million. The U.N. lists just over 1 million as refugees and their descendants.

• December 1987: A clash in the Jebaliya refugee camp sets off Palestinian uprising, which lasted until 1993 and claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians and 192 Israelis. The militant Islamic Hamas is formed early in the uprising.

• September 2005: Israel withdraws its troops and all of its 8,500 Jewish settlers. It retains control of Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border crossings.

• June 2007: Hamas violently seizes control of Gaza after routing forces loyal to rival Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas.

• June 2008: Hamas and Israel reach truce to halt the cross-border rocket attacks and end Israeli offensives in Gaza.

• November 2008: Palestinians resume rocket and mortar fire into Israel after Israeli incursion.

• Dec. 19, 2008: Hamas formally declares the truce over, rocket fire on Israel intensifies.

• Dec. 27, 2008: Israel launches a fierce air offensive, killing more than 200 Palestinians in the first day.

• Jan. 3: Thousands of Israeli troops launch a ground offensive in Gaza.

Economy trumps geopolitical strife: oil falls By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer JAN 6,09

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices fell Tuesday as fresh signs of a deepening U.S. recession trumped tensions in the Middle East and worries over natural gas shortages in Europe.Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 23 cents to $48.58 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices early on reached $50.47, the highest point since Dec. 1, before the National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales fell to the lowest level on record in November.A natural gas dispute between the Ukraine and Russia did effect heating oil prices in the United States.The dispute shut down gas supplies to six countries and reduced gas deliveries to several others.At least two Bulgarian cities were totally without gas, and nations like Turkey were turning to Iran to bolster their supplies.Heating oil, a proxy for fuel oil used in Europe, rose 3 percent with expectations that customers there will switch from natural gas.Traders began to sell crude once it reached $50 and began to realize that geopolitical problems were not enough to justify the rally, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.At the end of the day it hasn't cost us one drop of oil yet, he said of the problems in the Middle East and Europe.

Traders looked instead at the latest batch of economic reports that suggest demand for energy may weaken further.The government said orders to factories fell for a record fourth straight month in November. The 4.6 percent decline was nearly double the 2.5 percent drop economists expected.The Realtors group said its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4 percent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised October reading of 85.7 in October.That's worse than was expected by economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters and the lowest reading in the eight-year history of the index.The Commerce Department said weakness in factory orders in November reflected a big drop in demand for commercial aircraft. Weakness also was seen in autos, primary metals such as steel, and defense communications equipment.

Orders have been falling since August, including a 6 percent plunge in October, the biggest setback in eight years.Meanwhile, an index of activity in the U.S. services sector contracted at a slower pace in December as new orders and employment improved. In a surprisingly upbeat reading, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its services sector index rose to 40.6 in December from 37.3 in November. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the index to slip slightly to 37.The index continues to signal the sector is contracting. A reading below 50 signals contraction, while a reading above 50 indicates growth.The housing number was horrible. Factory orders were miserable, said Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. Those numbers had a negative effect on the market.And demand for gasoline continues to be weak. Consumption fell 1.8 percent for the week ended Friday and was down 3.5 percent from the same week a year ago, according to the weekly SpendingPulse report by MasterCard released Tuesday afternoon. The four-week moving average was even worse, falling 4 percent compared with a year ago and widening for the fourth straight week. Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said the four-week moving average continues to move down as consumer sentiment worsens, unemployment moves higher and home values continue to fall. But the fall off in demand also comes as retail gasoline has inched up. The Energy Information Agency reported Monday that gas prices rose 7.1 cents, or 4.4 percent, to a national average of $1.684. It was only the second time prices had increased since July 4. For all of 2008, MasterCard said gasoline consumption was down 3.2 percent from 2007.

MasterCard's report is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. Crude prices have edged upward as Israeli forces clash with Hamas. Israel continued its push into Gaza, edging closer to major population centers and attacking new sites. There are worries that the tensions in the Middle East could spread to oil-producing nations, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates. But Ritterbusch said he believes energy prices will fall again because demand remains week. He said traders were looking to Wednesday's government on inventory levels of oil supplies. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 6.68 cents to settle at $1.189 a gallon. Heating oil rose 5 cents to settle at $1.6268 a gallon while natural gas for February delivery fell 8.9 cents to settle at $5.983 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, February Brent crude rose 91 cents to $50.53 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger and Alan Zibel in Washington, Louise Watt in London and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

French president plans return to Egypt in hope of Gaza ceasefire Tue Jan 6, 9:25 am ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday that he would return to Egypt later in the evening for more talks with his Egyptian counterpart aimed at achieving a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip where Israeli forces are battling Hamas fighters.The French head of state spoke after meeting Lebanese President Michel Sleiman as part of a regional tour that included stops in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Syria.Egypt has a considerable role to play, Sarkozy told reporters after his talks with Sleiman.I will head back to Sharm el-Sheikh, after visiting French troops serving with the UN in Lebanon, to continue the dialogue launched yesterday in favour of peace in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, he added.The French leader said he had spoken by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the two agreed to meet again on Tuesday. They had met on Monday at the start of Sarkozy's visit to the Middle East.I wish to continue our work and our talks will probably last late into the evening, he said.An Egyptian official said Sarkozy would later hold a press conference with Mubarak.A joint appeal in favour of an immediate end to hostilities in the Gaza Strip is expected to be made, a diplomatic source in Egypt told AFP on condition of anonymity.The source said that Egypt, France and the European Union shared the same ideas on this crisis, calling for an end to the Israeli military operation and Palestinian rocket fire.A European source said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been part of a seperate EU peace mission to the region, would also be in Sharm on Tuesday evening.Sarkozy, who handed over the rotating presidency of the European Union to the Czech Republic on New Year's Day, has also held talks with leaders in Israel and the West Bank.On Tuesday he met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and urged Syria to put pressure on its ally Hamas to return to a truce in Gaza, which has been under a tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months.Assad likened the situation there to a concentration camp and slow death for the 1.5 million inhabitants, of whom 56 percent are children.A separate EU delegation is also visiting the region to seek a ceasefire.The offensive in Gaza has killed at least 590 Palestinians, including 160 children, and left more than 2,700 wounded, according to Gaza medics.Three civilians and one soldier have been killed by rocket fire inside Israel since the offensive was launched, while five soldiers have died inside the Gaza Strip.

Olmert warns Hezbollah against attacking Israel Tue Jan 6, 9:22 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday again sent a veiled warning to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia that Israel was ready to respond on its northern front if threatened.Let it be clear, we will make no compromise on our security... No one should get the wrong impression over our determination and our alertness on any front. We are not afraid of any confrontation or threat, Olmert said.We truly hope that no one will put us to the test, he said in a speech broadcast on army radio on the 11th day of Israel's offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.His comments were a thinly veiled reference to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia with which Israel fought a war in 2006 just weeks into Israel's last major offensive against the Gaza Strip.Two weeks after Israel launched its assault on Gaza in June 2006 -- after militants in the territory seized a soldier in a cross-border raid -- Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid of its own and seized two Israeli soldiers.

In response, Israel unleashed a war on Hezbollah that lasted for 34 days and killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Hamas in Egypt for first Gaza truce talks Tue Jan 6, 9:21 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire with Israel, 10 days after the Jewish state's unleashed its massive offensive on the Islamists' Gaza Strip stronghold.The talks with the Palestinian delegation, headed by Emad al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr from Hamas's Syrian-based political leadership, represent the first such contact since fighting began but hopes of a truce appear dim.Egypt has a peace deal with Israel and negotiated a previous six-month truce which expired on December 19, heralding the latest violence in which more than 580 Palestinians have been killed.Cairo has since been walking a tightrope between accusations of complicity with the Israeli offensive and trying to broker an end to the fighting which has also killed nine Israelis, most of them soldiers.We will speak with Egyptian leaders about the aggression in Gaza, Nasr told AFP before leaving Damascus.Our position is clear: end the aggression, withdraw (Israeli forces) from Gaza, open the crossing points, especially Rafah, with a total lifting of the blockade.Rafah in Egypt, the only border crossing with the Gaza Strip that bypasses Israel, has remained largely closed since the offensive started, with a trickle of aid going one way and wounded people coming the other.Israel's bombing of the Palestinian side of the border in a bid to destroy smuggling tunnels has also made it impossible to keep open.The Hamas delegation was to meet Egyptian intelligence officials, headed by Omar Suleiman, a security official said.We asked for a Hamas delegation with capability and authority to be sent to examine how a ceasefire can be achieved, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was quoted as saying in the state-owned Al-Ahram daily.The paper said the delegation would also examine an Egyptian proposal for Hamas to reconcile with the Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June 2007, and in November boycotted Egyptian efforts to reconcile the divided Palestinians.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last week said he would not reopen Rafah because he did not want to officialise the rift between Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas.Under a 2005 deal, the Rafah crossing can only be opened to normal traffic if European Union observers and PA forces are at the border, which is also monitored by Israel.The destruction of Egypt-Gaza tunnels around Rafah is a key Israeli objective in the war, aimed at preventing Hamas being able to rearm with rockets.Tunnels are however also a vital conduit for food supplies and basic needs, such as medicines, for many of the 1.5 million people in the territory which has been under tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months.

Middle East peace Quartet envoy Tony Blair said on Tuesday that cutting off the smuggling tunnels could secure an immediate ceasefire.Cutting off the supply of arms and money through the tunnels is the one basis on which you can bring a quick halt to this, otherwise I think we're into a more protracted campaign, Blair told BBC radio. The Egyptians, in principle, are prepared to do this, they want to do it, they recognise it's in their own interests as well.However, Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted Abul Gheit as saying the tunnels existed in order to get aid into Gaza and that arms entered the isolated territory by boat. Whoever says that the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons and ammunition is clueless because everything comes to them by sea, Abul Gheit said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed that the campaign would continue until Israel completely wiped out Hamas's ability to fire rockets into the Jewish state. Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead on Hamas on December 27 with a massive air bombardment of Gaza, and poured in thousands of ground troops a week later. Since then, at least 580 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 100 of them children, and more than 2,700 wounded, according to Gaza medics.

10TH DAY ISRAEL PROTECTS CITIZENS

Israel escalates offensive into Gaza cities by Mai Yaghi Mai Yaghi – Tue Jan 6, 9:16 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships went blazing into towns across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, attacking Hamas targets and searching for its leaders as the war death toll approached 600.Troops fought Islamist militants around the back alleys of Gaza's main city in the heaviest fighting of the 11-day-old offensive to halt rocket attacks on Israel. Hamas made its deepest rocket strike yet into Israel.On the diplomatic front, Arab nations pressed the case for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the onslaught, but Israel rejected ceasefire calls by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders.Europe must open its eyes, President Shimon Peres told an EU ministerial delegation that demanded a truce. We are not in the business of public relations or improving our image. We are fighting against terror and we have every right to defend our citizens.Black smoke covered districts of Gaza City and the edges of Deir al-Balah and al-Bureij where heavy fighting raged on Tuesday.Tanks backed by helicopter gunships rolled into the southern town of Khan Yunis before dawn, to be met by return fire from Hamas and its allies, witnesses said.One air strike killed 12 people -- including seven children --from the same family in Gaza City. Israeli strikes also hit two UN-run schools, one crowded with refugees, killing at least five Palestinians, medics and UN officials said.Two people were killed when an artillery shell slammed into a school in Khan Yunis and three people were killed in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they said.Four Israeli soldiers were killed in two friendly fire incidents during the overnight surge in fighting, the army said. Five have now died since Saturday.About 12 Hamas rockets were fired over the border, one reaching 45 kilometres (28 miles) inside Israeli territory, the deepest yet, lightly wounding a baby, the army said.Three civilians and one soldier have been killed by rocket fire inside Israel since the offensive was launched.Protests against Israel's action have spiralled around the globe and the French president led new calls for a truce in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday.

We, Europe, want a ceasefire as soon as possible, Sarkozy said in Jerusalem. Time is working against peace. The weapons must be silenced and there must be a temporary humanitarian truce.But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed that the campaign will continue until Israel completely wipes out Hamas's ability to fire rockets into Israel.Sarkozy also called Hamas rocket attacks irresponsible and unforgivable, sparking the Islamists' retort that he was totally biased towards Israel.Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on Hamas on December 27 with a massive air bombardment of Gaza , and sent in thousands of ground troops a week later.Since then, at least 592 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 160 children, and more than 2,700 wounded, according to Gaza medics.Israel has denied there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza but the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that there is a full blown crisis and people are dying because ambulances cannot reach them. I cannot sufficiently underline the level of concern and anxiety that is felt at the ICRC in relation to the crisis in Gaza, said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the ICRC director of operations. There is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with a full blown and major crisis in humanitarian terms. The situation for the people in Gaza is extreme and traumatic as a result of 10 days of uninterrupted fighting.

Kraehenbuehl said ICRC staff in Gaza described the past night as the most frightening to date in the territory where there is no power or water and finding food is a daily struggle. Israeli officials have insisted they are doing all to prevent civilians casualties and have blamed Hamas for operating from civilian centres. Olmert and Sarkozy agreed the French leader should pursue a peace deal involving Egypt which brokered a six-month truce that ended on December 19. Hamas refused to renew the deal, sparking the war. The UN Security Council was to meet again on Tuesday to weigh an Arab call for an immediate ceasefire and for protection of Palestinian civilians, diplomats said. Israel's main ally the United States has given strong support to the operation, with President George W. Bush saying any truce must ensure an end to rocket fire.

Sarkozy urges Syria to put pressure on Hamas Tue Jan 6, 9:12 am ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Syria on Tuesday to put pressure on its ally Hamas to return to a truce in the Gaza Strip where Israeli troops are battling Islamist fighters, and where hundreds of civilians have been killed.It's up to Syria to put pressure on the players (in the conflict) and notably on Hamas so that peace returns, Sarkozy told journalists after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Sarkozy arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus earlier in the day as part of a Mideast tour trying to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Syria is a key player in the region and is home to the self-exiled chief of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.The French president, architect of efforts to bring Damascus back into the world scene, added: I am convinced that Syria can make an important contribution to the search for a solution. President Assad can play a role. He must convince Hamas it should choose reason, peace and reconciliation.Sarkozy was referring to the bitter split between the supporters of Hamas and those who back Fatah of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Speaking at a news conference with Assad, the French leader also said he hoped that humanitarian corridors could be created into the Gaza Strip where United Nations officials are expressing alarm at a growing crisis among civilians there.At least 580 Palestinians, including 160 children, have been killed by Israeli bombs and shelling, medics say. Another 2,700 have been wounded.I hope that today some European non-governmental bodies will be able to enter Gaza, that humanitarian corridors can be installed and medicines distributed, he said.Everything must be done so that humanitarian aid reaches Gaza.

Along with the Europeans we have condemned Israel's disproportionate reaction, said Sarkozy.In the same way, firing of rockets on Israel is inadmissible, he said.Since the offensive began, four Israelis have been killed by militants' rockets and dozens wounded. Five Israeli troops have died in the offensive in Gaza.Addressing the conference, the Syrian president strongly condemned the Jewish state's onslaught. He compared Gaza -- which has been under a tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months -- to a concentration camp and a war crime.We are now seeking a rapid solution to this human tragedy. We are convinced, with Mr Sarkozy, of the importance of a ceasefire, a withdrawal (of Israeli forces) and the lifting of the blockade, said Assad.For Assad, the Israel blockade was a slow death.It is difficult to impose a ceasefire without lifting the blockade, he said, adding that Israel's aggression will not break the determination of the Palestinian people to build their independent state. said Assad.Sarkozy said also that he wanted a halt to hostilities and the Israeli offensive, accompanied by serious guarantees for the security of Israel, which means an effective and durable halt to the rocket firing.Now, he added, it was up to each side to be wise enough to take the first step. The European Union would help to do this, alongside Syria, Turkey and Egypt, Sarkozy added. The French president, who handed over the rotating presidency of the European Union to the Czech Republic earlier this month, began his trip on Monday, holding talks with leaders in Egypt, Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the base of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Sarkozy later left for Lebanon which had been due to be the last stop of his trip. However in Beirut he confirmed that he would return later to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for further talks with President Hosni Mubarak. Israel launched its massive air offensive on the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip on December 27, and followed this with a ground invasion last Saturday night. Israeli leaders say the operation is aimed at halting rocket fire on Israel by Gaza militants. A separate EU delegation is also visiting the region to seek a ceasefire. Israel has rebuffed all calls to halt its offensive, receiving strong backing from the United States.

Saudi royal blasts US reckless position on Gaza Tue Jan 6, 9:05 am ET

RIYADH (AFP) – A member of the Saudi royal family blasted the US government on Tuesday for its reckless position towards Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.The Bush administration has left you (with) a disgusting legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and bloodshed of innocents in Gaza, Prince Turki al-Faisal said in a message directed at President-elect Barack Obama.Enough is enough, today we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza, Faisal, a former ambassador to the United States, said at a forum on relations between the Gulf region and the US.Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal slammed Israeli politicians for shedding Palestinian blood in what has become a tactic for Israeli parties to settle their election battles.In an address read out at the forum by his deputy, the minister said peace in the region will not be achieved unless Israel pulls out of the territories it occupies.He called on Obama to live up to his campaign message of change, urging cooperation with the Arab world.

Together we can reach a peaceful and permanent solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said.According to Palestinian medics at least 592 Palestinians have died and more than 2,700 have been wounded since Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead against the Hamas rulers of Gaza on December 27.

Gaza offensive to go on until south Israel is calm: Barak Tue Jan 6, 7:44 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday the Gaza offensive will continue until calm returns to southern Israel, which has faced daily rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.We launched this operation to deal a heavy blow to Hamas, to change conditions of life in the south of the country, to bring calm and security to citizens and to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza, he said.Those are the goals and we intend to reach them, Barak said during a visit to the southern Israeli city of Sderot which for the past eight years has been the main target of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.No country in the world can allow a terrorist group to make life bitter for its citizens, the minister said on the 11th day of Israel's Operation Cast Lead.He also told public radio that Israeli forces have cut the Gaza Strip in two and surrounded Gaza City.

Closing Gaza tunnels could bring quick ceasefire: Blair Tue Jan 6, 5:30 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Cutting off Gaza's smuggling tunnels from Egypt could secure an immediate ceasefire, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair said Tuesday, while warning that Israel was otherwise in for a protracted campaign.The former British prime minister said the situation in the Gaza Strip was hell as Israel wages Operation Cast Lead against Hamas fighters.The Quartet, comprising the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, is struggling to mediate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.There are circumstances in which we could get an immediate ceasefire, and that's what people want to see, Blair told BBC radio in Jerusalem.Those circumstances focus very much around clear action to cut off the supply of arms and money through the tunnels that go from Egypt into Gaza.If there were strong, clear definitive action on that then I think that gives us the best context to get an immediate ceasefire and start to change this situation.

That is the one basis on which you can bring a quick halt to this, otherwise I think we're into a more protracted campaign.And he added: The Egyptians, in principle, are prepared to do this, they want to do it, they recognise it's in their own interests as well.The question is, can this be put together in such a way that we get the immediate ceasefire that people want to see, and then we have to address the longer term question of how you get Palestinian unity.Blair said most people in the international community -- himself included -- wanted to get into a dialogue with Hamas, but there had to be a set of common principles of agreement before doing so.

Citing his experiences resolving the sectarian strife in Northern Ireland, he said discussions with paramilitaries could only take place on the basis that there were certain key principles that everyone understood.One of those principles was that there should be the pursuit of political objectives exclusively through peaceful means, he said.It's very hard to do this if you've got an organisation like Hamas that still says that we're perfectly justified in sending suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians in Israel.Blair said returning Gaza to some sort of civilisation and reuniting it with the West Bank was the only solution in the end.He added, however, that it was really, really difficult to judge whether Hamas were prepared to strike a deal.The truth is for anyone living in Gaza, it's hell. It's bound to be. You've got a situation where you're in an effective warzone, he said.Blair said one of the most frustrating things about his job was that a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians was achievable.Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters in major cities of overcrowded Gaza on Tuesday as Israel rebuffed appeals to stop a war on the Islamists that has killed at least 560 Palestinians.

UN Security Council to weigh new call for effective Gaza truce by Gerard Aziakou Gerard Aziakou – Mon Jan 5, 11:09 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS, (AFP) – The UN Security Council was to meet again Tuesday to weigh an Arab call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip and for protection of Palestinian civilians, diplomats said.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body this month, was to chair Tuesday's meeting, scheduled for 5 pm (2200 GMT), according to France's UN Ambassador to the UN Jean-Maurice Ripert said.A Western diplomat said France was working with Arab states to finalize a draft resolution that would call for an immediate ceasefire, specifically an end to the Israeli military assault as well as to rocket firing into Israel by Gaza-based militants.The text would also urge the lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza to allow humanitarian access to the beleaguered Palestinian population, protection of Palestinian civilians, a resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and a mechanism to monitor the truce and the protection of civilians, diplomats said.Israel has sealed its border with Gaza during its military offensive there, allowing no movement to and from the territory apart from its own armed forces.UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday met with a delegation of Arab foreign ministers led by Arab League Arab League chief Amr Mussa and the two reported a convergence of views on the need for the Security Council to act decisively and swiftly to end the Gaza bloodletting.We must insist that Israel end its military assault, which is clearly excessive, Ban told the Arab ministers.

At least 555 Palestinians -- including more than 90 children -- have been killed since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza on December 27 to put an end to rocket firing by Gaza-based militants. More than 2,500 have been wounded.We must insist that Hamas (the Palestinian Islamist movement) end immediately its rocket attacks (on Israel), which are so terribly counter-productive, in addition to being completely unacceptable. There must be an immediate ceasefire, durable and fully respected by all, Ban noted.We have also agreed to discuss a credible mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people, as well as humanitarian assistance, and to prevent the further occurrence of this situation, he later told reporters.

The UN secretary general told reporters that he would make the same point to US President George W. Bush during a White House meeting Tuesday morning.After conferring with Ban, the Arab ministerial delegation met separately with each of the five permanent members of the council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and later with the 10 non-permanent council members.US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said after his meeting with the Arab team that he shared "their concern about the urgency of the situation.We want this conflict to end as quickly as possible but for an enduring ceasefire, practical arrangements have to be put in place in which everyone has confidence, he added.He was referring to the need to ensure that the rocket firing into Israel will end once and for all and to prevent smuggling of weapons once crossing points between Israel and Gaza are reopened.We did not want them (Arab ministers) to have false expectations that those practical arrangements can be arrived in the coming hours, Khalilzad told reporters.

Mussa meanwhile slammed the Israeli military offensive in Gaza as naked aggression ... that has to be condemned.Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, whose country is one of the 10 non-permanent council members, said a key issue was how to set up a credible, effective monitoring mechanism of the truce. But he said details of such a mechanism were not raised during the meeting with the Arab delegation. Earlier, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki expressed hope that the proposed draft resolution could be adopted at Tuesday's meeting, which Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas plans to attend.

Olmert rebuffs Sarkozy call for Gaza ceasefire Mon Jan 5, 7:32 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Israel on Monday to halt its war in Gaza, but was rebuffed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who rejected any truce that fails to end the Islamist group's rocket attacks on Israel.Sarkozy met Olmert after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the architect of a six-month truce whose expiry on December 19 unleashed a series of events that resulted in the Israeli invasion of Gaza.Sarkozy said after meeting Abbas: We, Europe want a ceasefire as soon as possible. Time is working against peace. The weapons must be silenced and there must be a temporary humanitarian truce.But Olmert's response was that the results of the operation must be... that Hamas must not only stop firing but must no longer be able to fire.We cannot accept a compromise that will allow Hamas to fire in two months against Israeli towns, his office quoted the premier as saying.The UN Security Council was to hold a ministerial meeting on Tuesday to discuss an Arab call for an immediate ceasefire and for protection of Palestinian civilians, diplomats said.But Olmert said: At this time and in view of the diplomatic developments, it will not be wise to pass a (Security Council) resolution on the issue because experience has shown that Israel cannot afford losing its freedom to act against terrorism.In that vein, a senior Israeli official said peace efforts were under way in the Middle East itself, led by Washington, that would probably be more fruitful than any Security Council action.There are currently a few regional initiatives led by the US... They are making progress... Israel believes that these regional initiatives involving several Arab countries, mainly Egypt, would be more effective than a UNSC resolution.

Concretely, Olmert and Sarkozy agreed that the French president would continue to push for a deal involving Egypt.The French president had harsh words for Hamas, which refused to renew the six-month ceasefire and continued to fire rockets as Israel bombarded Gaza.Hamas acted in an irresponsible and unforgiveable manner... Hamas is to blame for the suffering of the Palestinians, he said.Hamas accused Sarkozy of total bias towards Israel.Abbas called for an immediate and unconditional end to the Israeli aggression against my people in the Gaza Strip.Talks earlier on Monday with Mubarak in Cairo focused on Egyptian efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza... and a return to the truce between Palestinians and Israelis, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.Cairo, whose role as mediator has been shaken by accusations of complicity in Israel's campaign, controls Rafah, Gaza's only border crossing which bypasses the Jewish state.Also in Egypt on Monday was a delegation of EU foreign ministers, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said their talks touched on getting the Security Council to pass a resolution on a ceasefire.After Egypt, the European foreign ministers headed for Jerusalem, Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and Amman, along with EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Hamas said it was sending a delegation to Egypt for talks on the war in Gaza, the first such contact since the fighting began.

We have received an invitation from Egypt and we're going to Cairo to listen to Egyptian officials and discuss with them suspended issues, notably the (permanent) reopening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Beirut-based Hamas official Ossama Hemdan told AFP. We want an immediate end to Israeli aggression and the lifting of the blockade and we will listen to Egyptian proposals on the subject, he added. Hamas, which has controlled the strip since June 2007, has said it would be open to a ceasefire if Israel lifted its blockade and opened the crossings into the densely populated and impoverished coastal strip.

US suggests conditions of a Gaza cease-fire By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 5, 6:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration stuck to its defense of Israel's expanding offensive in the Gaza Strip on Monday and pushed for a cease-fire including a lasting halt to Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel and a reopening of border crossings that are Gaza's economic lifeline.President George W. Bush, in his first public comments on the conflict since Israel launched a ground offensive over the weekend, said the Jewish state was justified in protecting itself against Hamas militants.

The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas, Bush told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is deemed by Washington to be a terrorist group.Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to launch rockets to kill innocent Israelis, Bush said. Israel's obviously decided to protect herself and her people.While France and many other countries have pressed for an immediate cease-fire, the United States has insisted that any truce be sustainable — and that Hamas go first in ending the exchange of fire. Hamas has launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, while Israel has pursued a ferocious campaign that began as a week of aerial bombing and was expanded Saturday into a ground offensive.Bush, without explicitly endorsing Israel's ground campaign, laid blame for the conflict squarely on Hamas. He said he hopes for a cease-fire but added that it would not work unless Hamas stops its attacks.Bush also expressed concern about the grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where people have lived under hard and worsening conditions and Israeli bombardment. The violence must stop, Bush said, but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again.President-elect Barack Obama said that he's been getting daily briefings on the situation in the Middle East, but offered little comment beyond noting that delicate negotiations are taking place and that there can't be two voices coming out of the United States.Obama's chief national security spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson, declined to comment on the three-point cease-fire proposal announced by the State Department, which was quickly rejected by a Hamas official as slanted in favor of Israel.State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had 17 phone conversations over the weekend with foreign leaders in a bid for international consensus on those three points, which include a halt to Hamas' rocket firing into Israel.

The cease-fire proposal also would include a key Hamas demand: an arrangement for reopening crossing points on the border with Israel, McCormack said. The third element would address the tunnels into Gaza from Egypt through which Hamas has smuggled materials and arms.We're doing a lot of work on these three elements. The secretary is trying to get the international system and various actors in the international system to coalesce around those three elements, McCormack said.

McCormack said arrangements to reopen the border crossings could be worked out on the basis of a 2005 movement and access accord that has not been fully implemented by the Israelis and Palestinians. He said some additional equipment and technical expertise might have to be supplied as part of such an arrangement. He offered no further details.In Damascus, Syria, a Hamas official rejected the U.S. proposal, saying it reflects the Israeli view. The deputy head of Hamas' political leadership in Syria, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told The Associated Press the U.S. plan would serve to encourage continued Israeli attacks, creating more massacres in Gaza.Israel has said it intends to press its offensive until it silences the Hamas rockets, but it has been less explicit about its long-term objectives. A senior U.S. defense official said Monday that, so far, Americans see no indication inside Gaza that Israel is preparing for a long-term occupation of the territory. The defense official requested anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, but Whitman declined to give details. About 100 American troops are in Israel to maintain and provide crew for an advanced U.S. radar that gives Israel early warning in case of a missile attack, Whitman said.An Israeli official in Washington said Monday that his country is not seeking additional equipment or other U.S. military help. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the country's discussions with the Bush administration, also said there are no plans to use cluster bombs in Gaza.The State Department determined a year ago that Israel probably misused U.S.-made cluster bombs during its 2006 war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors. The State Department has withheld direct comment on the Israel ground thrust into Gaza, which began Saturday. Pressed for comment Monday, McCormack said, Every sovereign state has to decide for itself how best to defend itself. He also reiterated the administration's concern about the conflict's impact on civilians. The Gaza crisis prompted Rice to cancel a long-planned trip to China this week. While Rice has been making phone calls to allies to foster a cease-fire in Gaza, McCormack said Monday that she has no current plans to visit the Mideast as part of that effort. Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Anne Gearan and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

Wanted: Border monitors to oversee Gaza truce By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 5, 5:53 pm ET

JERUSALEM – The contours of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas are emerging, with diplomacy focusing on international guarantees, including foreign border monitors to oversee any agreement.Various truce ideas have been floated in recent days in a swirl of diplomacy in the Middle East and at the United Nations, most involving international monitors.Israel has two key objectives — to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza, and to create enough deterrence to persuade Hamas to halt rocket attacks for good.Once these objectives are achieved and are followed by very strict and credible international guarantees, we will leave Gaza, having created this new situation, said Dan Gillerman, a senior Israeli diplomat.Hamas says it will only halt rocket fire in exchange for lifting the stifling blockade of Gaza, enforced by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas takeover in 2007.Opening the borders without conditions would mean de facto recognition of the rule of Hamas, something Israel, Egypt and much of the international community are loathe to do. The Islamic militants are branded as a terrorist movement by many, and have refused to recognize Israel or commit to previous peace agreements.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, who represents the West Bank Palestinian Authority that is a rival to Hamas, suggested Monday that an international force would observe and monitor the Arab crossings and provide protection to Palestinians.Israel's concept is tougher, authorizing international forces to destroy tunnels that Hamas has used to smuggle in large amounts of rockets and explosives since seizing control of Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.Some 300 tunnels were running under the Gaza-Egypt border before the offensive began, the Israeli military says, and Israeli warplanes have bombed them in a series of strikes in the past 10 days, including dozens on Monday.During a six-month truce that expired Dec. 19, Israel only allowed in a trickle of goods, increasing Hamas' frustration and willingness to call off the deal. Hamas fired repeated rocket barrages into southern Israel after the cease-fire lapsed, drawing the latest Israeli invasion.Over the weekend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to 17 foreign leaders to discuss components of a cease-fire, including preventing smuggling and opening Gaza crossings, said spokesman Sean McCormack.

A Rice-brokered deal in 2005 between Abbas and Israel would likely form the basis for any new arrangement. Under that agreement, EU monitors were deployed at the Rafah terminal on the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent smuggling of weapons and militants, while Israel observed Palestinian-supervised border traffic from a distance, via closed-circuit TV.The European Union is proposing that monitors return to the Rafah terminal, and says the mission could also be expanded to Israel's cargo and passenger crossings with Gaza, according to a European diplomat. He spoke on condition of anonymity because French President Nicolas Sarkozy was discussing truce ideas with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Monday.Europe appears willing to contribute monitors in any number of scenarios.These could include watching entrances and exits from Gaza, monitoring a cease-fire if all sides agree, and even acting as customs agents to police what is coming in and out of Gaza. We'll go as far as possible, the European diplomat said. Everything depends on whether the Israelis trust us. If they want us to go as far as playing a customs role, we will.

Turkey, Israel's closest Muslim ally, also expressed willingness to contribute monitors.Still, a key sticking point is who would be deployed on the Gaza side of the border. Egypt says it will only open Rafah if Abbas' forces staff the crossing. Egypt, worried about Islamic fundamentalism at home, is trying to contain Hamas, which is backed by Iran and Syria.Abbas, who is eager to gain a new foothold in the territory, was to fly to New York later Monday to lobby at the United Nations for reviving the 2005 deal, his aides said. However, Hamas has been cool to the idea of letting Abbas back into Gaza. Similar proposals were raised in the past as part of failed power-sharing talks between the two bitter rivals. It's also not clear what sort of role Israel is ready to give the militant group. There has been no direct contact between Abbas and Hamas in recent days, but a Hamas delegation from Damascus was heading to Cairo to hear what the Egyptians have to offer. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said reviving talks between the rivals is key to any cease-fire. Hamas and Abbas have been at odds since Hamas won 2006 parliament elections, and they view each other with distrust and even hatred. Israel, for its part, won't be satisfied with bringing back EU monitors who lack policing powers.

Israel has been disappointed by the performance of international peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon under a cease-fire that ended its 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli officials say Hezbollah has been amassing weapons, despite the presence of the observers. As a result, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says international monitors on the Gaza border should be empowered to close tunnels used to smuggle weapons to Hamas from Egypt — broader powers than those apparently envisioned by Abbas and the Arabs. Malki, Abbas' foreign minister, said there is broad Arab support for monitors at Gaza's crossings and the tunnels should be shut down, though he did not say who should be responsible. If you are talking about observers that will go and shut down tunnels, they are not really observers, Malki told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. We are talking about observers that will observe and monitor the performance at the Arab crossings.Within this package, of course, the whole industry of tunnels should be really shut down and should be really closed, and this is really a part of the total objective, he added. Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said physical obstacles on the Gaza-Egypt border should also be considered. Ideas floated in the past include scaffolding or concrete poured deep into the ground, he said. Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Edie Lederer at the United Nations and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

Bush says Gaza ceasefire must stop Hamas by Laurent Lozano Laurent Lozano – Mon Jan 5, 4:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON, Jan 5, 2009 (AFP) – President George W. Bush on Monday maintained his firm support for Israel and said any Gaza ceasefire must ensure Hamas militants can no longer fire rockets on Israeli towns.As global calls mounted for a halt to the Israeli military assault aimed at stopping mortar and rocket attacks from the impoverished coastal territory, Bush said he understood Israel's wish to defend itself.I understand Israel's desire to protect itself and that the situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas, Bush said.The United States was concerned about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip on the 10th day of a relentless Israeli air and land assault against Hamas militants, Bush said.All of us of course would like to see, you know, violence stop, but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again, the US leader said.

I know people are saying: let's have a ceasefire. (Those are) noble ambitions. But any ceasefire must have the conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which to launch rockets.Medics say 555 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's Operation Cast Lead was launched on December 27 to stop Hamas and its militant allies from launching rocket attacks across the border into southern Israel.

The Israeli government has so far rejected European-led calls for a ceasefire, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament Monday the Hamas war would go on.
Gaza City is partially surrounded, Barak told MPs. We have hit Hamas hard, but we have not yet reached all the goals that we have set for ourselves and the operation continues.Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since breaking with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and seizing power in June 2007, has also remained defiant.Victory is coming, the movement's senior leader in Gaza, Mahmud Zahar, said in a television address. They (Israel) have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine.White House spokeswoman Dana Perino reiterated Washington's concern for civilians in the densely populated territory which is home to 1.5 million people, and said Israel was trying to protect innocent life.We urge them to be very cautious when it comes to civilian casualties. We want to keep those to an absolute minimum, Perino said.One of the unfortunate things is that Hamas often hides amongst innocent civilians. And I know that Israel has said that they are trying to take care to make sure that they are protected.

Perino added that the White House wants a ceasefire as soon as possible, but it has to be something that is durable. We don't want to go back to the status quo ante, where it's okay for Hamas to be lobbing rockets into Israel that terrorize innocent people.State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said any ceasefire must meet three conditions: halt rocket fire on Israel, open crossings into Gaza and resolve the problem of tunnels used to smuggle weapons between Gaza and Egypt.He also said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had made 17 phone calls over the weekend, trying to strike a deal for a truce.Meanwhile, president-elect Barack Obama expressed concern about the Gaza crisis but stressed he would not interfere in delicate negotiations by the outgoing US administration. Asked whether Israel's offensive against Hamas was distracting him from his economic agenda a day after he arrived in Washington to prepare his transition, Obama said: Obviously, international affairs are of deep concern.With the situation in Gaza, I've been getting briefed every day, said Obama, who is to be inaugurated on January 20. I will continue to insist that when it comes to foreign affairs, it is particularly important to adhere to the principle of one president at a time, because there are delicate negotiations taking place right now and we can't have two voices coming out of the United States when you have so much at stake.

Calls to use oil as weapon in Gaza fight fall flat By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer – Mon Jan 5, 2:20 pm ET

Bahrain, oil … DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The call to use oil as a weapon against Israel's friends once would have echoed in capitals across the Middle East. But even as fighting widens in Gaza, threats of an oil embargo by some in Iran and Bahrain are falling flat.Key Persian Gulf producers like Saudi Arabia and even top officials in the countries behind the boycott calls are keeping quiet, reflecting a focus on their struggle to deal with the steep plunge in world oil prices.An oil embargo is just bad for business, said Serene Gardiner, oil products analyst at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai.On Sunday, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander as urging Muslim countries to use oil as a weapon to pressure an end to Israel's offensive in Gaza.Iran's foreign ministry didn't distance itself from Brig. Gen. Mirfaysal Bagherzadeh's comments when asked about them Monday. We do support any action for realizing two main steps: an immediate stop to the invasion and an end to the Gaza blockade, spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said.But Bagherzadeh is not among the top oil officials in Iran, OPEC's second-biggest producer, and his suggestions drew no comment from those leaders.

A few days earlier, members of Bahrain's lower house of parliament said Arab states should use oil and the region's huge investment funds to pressure the West over Israel's offensive. That call drew only silence from leaders of the island kingdom, an important American ally and host to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.Arab oil producers most famously used crude supplies as a weapon during the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab armies led by Egypt and Syria. Their decision to stop shipments to the U.S. and other allies of Israel led to shortages and a steep spike in the price of oil.But analysts said times have changed.We're not in 1973. We've moved beyond that, said Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst with the consulting firm PFC Energy. The (Persian) Gulf realizes it's plugged into what's happening in the rest of the world.The region's leaders are embracing more pragmatic politics increasingly distant from the angry rhetoric of the past. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, for example, has repeatedly said his country, the world's biggest oil exporter, would not use oil as a weapon.There hasn't been, in the history of Saudi Arabia's oil production over the past at least 20 years, any attempt to change the demand-supply equilibrium, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist with SABB, formerly known as Saudi British Bank.I don't think that they want to destabilize that, nor do they want to see oil prices go to levels that disturb the ability of the global economy to revive itself, Sfakianakis said.In large part, the pragmatism stems from a focus on economic development that hinges on careful management of energy resources.

Countries in the region are racing to diversify their economies before oil profits run out, seeking to establish themselves as financial, tourism and commercial hubs with glittering skyscrapers and other attractions.Oil resources are for the development of countries, said Abdel Aziz Daghestani, an independent Saudi economist and analyst when asked about the Iranian general's oil-as-weapon proposal.Despite declining oil revenues from the price slide, Saudi Arabia and some other countries like the United Arab Emirates recently set new budgets that call for ramped-up spending on key services and sectors such as education and health care.Even the Islamic government in Iran has to tread carefully. It depends on oil revenue for as much as 90 percent of its foreign income and is suffering badly from the price fall.

As a key backer of the militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran also needs money to fuel its proxy fights with Israel and the Arab nations that are ideological opponents, particularly Saudi Arabia. Halting oil sales to the West would be a severe blow for Iran, analysts say. They cannot afford to reduce production, Standard Chartered's Gardiner said. Associated Press writers Tarek El-Tablawy in Cairo, Egypt, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Iran says 70,000 volunteer for Israel fight Mon Jan 5, 2:04 pm ET

TEHRAN, Iran – More than 70,000 Iranian students have volunteered to carry out suicide bombings against Israel, Iran's state news agency reported Monday, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not responded to their request for permission.

Volunteer suicide groups have made similar requests in the past and the government never responded, giving the campaigns more of the feel of propaganda.According to the official IRNA news agency, hardline student leader Esmaeil Ahmadi said the students want to fight Israel in support of Hamas, Gaza's Islamic militant rulers.

Iran is Hamas' main backer, though the country denies sending weapons to the Islamic militant movement that took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Iran considers Israel its archenemy, and Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched the registration drive for suicide bombers last week and asked the government to allow them to stage the attacks.In an open letter to Ahmadinejad, the students said volunteer student suicide groups ... are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities to pave the way for such action. A copy of the letter was made available to The Associated Press last week.The hard-liners started signing up volunteers after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree Dec. 28 saying anyone killed while defending Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks would be considered a martyr.Khamenei's religious decree was not considered a government decision and did not oblige the government to launch attacks against Israel.At a gathering two days later in Tehran, hard-liners distributed registration forms.Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians, has outraged many in Iran and throughout the rest of the Muslim world. Israel says it launched its campaign in retaliation for Hamas rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.On Dec. 30, IRNA reported that dozens of Iranian students broke into the British Embassy residence in Tehran, accusing Britain of supporting the Israeli air assault that started Dec. 27. The report said the students pulled down the British flag and raised a Palestinian flag at the compound's entrance before police forced them to leave.The protest lasted about half an hour, and no injuries were reported.

First major Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza City: witnesses, army Mon Jan 5, 12:52 pm ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli troops and Hamas militants fought their first major battles in Gaza City on Monday night, military sources and witnesses said.Large explosions and heavy exchanges of fire rocked Shejaiya neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City as Israel pressed its campaign to halt Hamas rocket attacks.Hamas said in a statement that its fighters had fired missiles at seven tanks in the same district. The Islamic Jihad movement said several of its members were killed in the fighting.

Israeli military sources confirmed that troops were involved in heavy clashes in that area.Flares lit up the skies over the blacked-out neighbourhood. Assault helicopters were also seen.

Defiant Hamas chief vows victory against Israel by Mai Yaghi Mai Yaghi – Mon Jan 5, 8:18 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – A top Hamas leader defiantly vowed to win victory against Israel on Monday as Islamist fighters battled to prevent Israeli troops from taking over their Gaza stronghold.Victory is coming, God willing, Mahmud Zahar said in his first television address since the launch of Israel's offensive against Hamas on December 27.Zahar insisted the group's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, has given the most beautiful performances during its confrontation with the army that the world thought invincible.We will defeat it, God willing.The statement came as a Hamas delegation was to travel to Egypt for talks on ending the offensive that Israel unleashed in response to persistent rocket fire by Gaza militants.Dressed entirely in black, his face sombre and his tone grim, Zahar read out a statement in what appeared to be a hastily prepared recording, sitting in an empty room.The painful tests of today will help us realise our national aspirations of tomorrow, he said, adding that Hamas was not renouncing its aim to free all of Palestine.The hardliner, widely considered to be the most influential Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, lashed out against the United Nations and the West, accusing the international community of doing nothing to prevent the devastating Israeli offensive.

He called for an end to the aggression, the withdrawal of (Israeli) forces and the lifting of the blockade that Israel imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007.If that happens, we will be ready to discuss anything that can be in the interest of the Palestinian people, he said.A delegation of senior Hamas officials was to leave for Egypt for talks on how to end the war in the tiny territory sandwiched between Israel and Egypt.We have received an invitation from Egypt and we're going to Cairo to listen to Egyptian officials and discuss with them suspended issues, notably the (permanent) reopening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, said Hamas politburo member Ossama Hemdan.The delegation heading to Cairo will include two members of Hamas's political leadership, Emad al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr, Hemdan said.We want an immediate end to Israeli aggression and the lifting of the blockade and we will listen to Egyptian proposals, he added.Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the army had dealt a heavy blow to Hamas.A senior Israeli minister said on Sunday that the Islamists may be seeking a respectable way out of the conflict having underestimated the scope of the offensive.The intelligence reports that we've received today in the Israeli cabinet are that the Hamas is looking for a respectable way of finding a way to get out of this situation, Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog told CNN television, adding that the Islamists were under huge pressure.

Israelis relieved as army moves to halt rockets By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 5, 7:48 am ET

SDEROT, Israel – Israelis bombarded by Palestinian rockets have begun to emerge from homes and shelters, regaining confidence after columns of Israeli soldiers moved into Gaza to crush the militants who have rained missiles on them for eight years.

Towns near the Gaza Strip virtually shut down after Israel's conflict with Gaza militants escalated into a showdown on Dec. 27. Israel launched an air campaign against the missile launchers and against Hamas, the Islamic militant movement that rules the territory, while the militants stepped up the barrage against Israeli towns and villages.The ground offensive that began Saturday night brought cheer to Israeli civilians, convinced their government meant to end the missile terror even at the cost of what is likely to be heavy army casualties.However, the armored and infantry assault brought no immediate respite from rocket attacks. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel on Sunday, wounding five people.It's good that the troops went in. Finally we are doing something, said Yamit Azulai, emptying a shopping cart full of groceries into her car. It was the first time in a week she had been to the supermarket in Sderot, a town just beyond Gaza's northeast corner that has absorbed thousands of missiles since 2001.Until now, it was Hamas who decided when to fire missiles. It was always in their hands. Now we are taking control, she said.Moves toward normalcy were tentative. Some shops and cafes reopened in Sderot, but about half remained shuttered. Schools and nonessential industries stayed shut within a 25-mile reach of Gaza, the maximum range in Hamas' missile arsenal. Some people like Azulai who ventured out finished their chores quickly to return home.I'm not letting the children outside, she said.The offensive brought a kind of vindictive satisfaction to Sderot, which had long urged the government to strike at Hamas and take out the missile threat. With only 20,000 people, many believed the authorities were unwilling to risk a major confrontation on their behalf.

I'm glad Ashdod and Beersheba got hit, said construction worker Zohar Shapado, referring to two large Israeli cities that were rocketed for the first time last month. "It was only then that they decided to act.Sderot has built up formidable defenses. Every bus stop has a small concrete hut to protect against the shrapnel and pellets packed into the warhead of homemade Qassam rockets. Homes and apartment blocks are built with windowless rooms with steel doors.People are edgy, but resigned to being targets.We're used to it, said Shapado, calmly abandoning the coffee he was drinking at a sidewalk cafe and moving inside to safety as yet another rocket alert resounded through town. Seconds later, the boom of the rocket crashing harmlessly in a field outside of town was the signal for customers to return to their tables and resume conversations.Police say 10 people have been killed in Sderot since 2004, including three toddlers. That compares with more than 500 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the last week, including about 100 civilians.But the damage often is psychological. Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where most casualties from southern Israel are brought, has treated 164 civilian patients since the Israeli air war began. All but 10 were stress related, Shlomi Cabish, the hospital's deputy director, told The Associated Press.Not everyone is happy with the decision to send infantry troops into the narrow warrens of Gaza, where Palestinian resistance was fierce and dozens of soldiers were wounded and at least one was killed in the first 24 hours.Sitting under a date palm in Beersheba's Old City, Benny Fryand argued with his friend Amos Shem Tov over the advisability of a ground war.You want to send in the army like cowboys, said Fryand, 59, arguing that the air war had been conducted with devastating effect without a single military casualty. Fryand, who splits his time between Israel and Brooklyn, New York, expected Hamas to take revenge by firing even more rockets. Shem Tov, 61, voicing what appeared from several interviews to be the majority view, said the war against Hamas cannot be won from the air. What would Stalin say? You can't have war without casualties, said the veteran immigrant from the Caucasus region of Russia. After that comes the victory.

Czech PM says has plan to resolve Gaza situation Mon Jan 5, 7:35 am ET

PRAGUE (AFP) – Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country took the EU presidency on January 1, said Monday he had a plan whose goal is to at least suspend fighting in Gaza following Israel's assault.We have a scenario to take a more active step in this matter to at least suspend the fighting, Topolanek said at a news conference without giving details about the plan.He only said he had discussed the scenario with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that he was going to call US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later Monday.The plan exceeds the borders of the EU. It is necessary first to consult all parties involved as well as other parties that are not involved directly, Topolanek's spokesman Jiri Frantisek Potuznik told AFP without elaborating.Israel unleashed a massive bombing campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza on December 27 in response to constant rocket fire from the territory and poured in ground troops to back up the bombardments a week later.Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg is heading a high-level EU delegation to the Middle East that set off from Prague on Sunday to seek a ceasefire.Topolanek also said on Monday that Potuznik would keep his job despite issuing a statement that had angered the Arab world last Saturday by suggesting the EU saw the ground assault on Gaza as defensive.

Israel allows humanitarian aid into Gaza Mon Jan 5, 5:09 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel allowed a convoy of humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip on Monday, as it pressed on with a massive offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas, the army said.A convoy of 80 trucks transporting humanitarian aid has started to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, a military spokesman said.The aid included medicine and food which was sent from Egypt, Jordan, Greece and UN aid agencies, he said.The Nahal Oz terminal in the north was also opened on Monday to allow the transfer of 200,000 litres of fuel for Gaza's electricity station as well as 120 tonnes of cooking gas, he said.The Erez crossing in the north meantime was opened to allow some 200 Palestinian holders of foreign passports to leave the territory.Israel unleashed a massive bombing campaign of Hamas targets in Gaza on December 27 in response to consistent rocket fire from the territory and poured in ground troops to back up the bombardments a week later.Aid groups have repeatedly warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated territory, where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on foreign aid.