U. S. pushes for truce as violence rages unabated
Israel, Hamas continue to trade volleys, accusations
JERUSALEM — Efforts to agree on a cease- fire between Israel and Hamas intensified Tuesday, but the struggle to achieve even a brief pause in the fighting emphasized the obstacles to finding any lasting solution.
On the deadliest day of fighting in the week- old conflict, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived hurriedly in Jerusalem and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to push for a truce. She was due in Cairo on Wednesday to consult with Egyptian offi cials in contact with Hamas, placing her and the Obama administration at the center of a fraught process with multiple parties, interests and demands.
Officials on all sides had raised expectations that a cease- fire would begin around midnight, followed by negotiations for a longerterm agreement. But by the end of Tuesday, offi cials with Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza, said any announcement would not come at least until Wednesday.
The Israelis, who have amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Gaza border and have threatened to invade for a second time in four years to end the rocket fire from Gaza, never publicly backed the idea of a short break in fighting. They said they were open to a diplomatic accord but were looking for something more enduring.
“If there is a possibility of achieving a long- term solution to this problem through diplomatic means, we prefer that,” Netanyahu said before meeting with Clinton at his offi ce. “But if not, I’m sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions necessary to defend its people.”
Clinton spoke of the need for “a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike.” It was unclear whether she was starting a complex task of shuttle diplomacy or whether she expected to achieve a pause in the hostilities and then head home.
The diplomatic moves came as the antagonists on both sides stepped up their attacks. Israeli aerial and naval forces assaulted several Gaza targets in multiple strikes, including a suspected rocket- launching site near Al Shifa Hospital. That attack killed more than a dozen people, bringing the total number of fatalities in Gaza to more than 130 — roughly half of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
A delegation visiting from the Arab League canceled a news conference at the hospital because of the Israeli aerial assaults as wailing ambulances brought victims in, some of them decapitated.
The Israeli assaults carried into early Wednesday, with multiple blasts punctuating the otherwise darkened Gaza skies.
Militants in Gaza fired a barrage of at least 200 rockets into Israel, killing an Israeli soldier — the first military casualty on the Israeli side since the hostilities broke out. The Israeli military said the soldier, identified as Yosef Fartuk, 18, had died from a rocket strike that hit an area near Gaza.
Israeli offi cials said a civilian military contractor working near the Gaza border was also killed, bringing the number of fatalities in Israel from the week of rocket mayhem to five.
Other Palestinian rockets hit the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashdod, and longer- range rockets were fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Neither main city was struck, and no casualties were reported. One Gaza rocket hit a building in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, injuring one person and wrecking the top three floors.