Diplomats Try to End Israel-Gaza Conflict

The five-day conflict between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers reached its deadliest point yet, as diplomats in Cairo and elsewhere tried to forestall an Israeli ground invasion that would lead to a far bloodier battle.
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Reuters
Palestinians gather around a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday.
An Israeli envoy traveled to Cairo, where he met briefly with Egyptian security officials, as Hamas and other regional powers met for cease-fire talks whose outcome will help determine whether the thousands of troops Israel is massing along the Gazan border will be ordered to enter the coastal enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that "the Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation." Israel's military has already called up 40,000 reservists, in addition to its regular standing army of about 175,000, and said it could yet call up another 35,000.
The conflict saw its most violent day yet, lending greater urgency to the cease-fire talks, as Israeli missiles killed 30 Palestinians and Gazan militants fired dozens of rockets deep into Israel, whose defense system destroyed two of them headed toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
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Associated Press
A woman is rescued from a house in Gaza City that collapsed during an Israeli airstrike on Sunday.
Israel faces the painful decision of whether to launch a ground offensive, which would likely raise casualties on both sides, risk international reproach and further inflame a region already confronting a civil war in Syria and widespread unrest.
The U.S. and Britain both reiterated their support for Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian rocket fire on Sunday, but both countries also warned against a ground attack, suggesting the robust Western support Israel has enjoyed so far may not last if it invades.
"My message to all of them was that Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired onto its territory," President Barack Obama said during a visit to Thailand. "If that can be accomplished without the ramping up of military activity in Gaza that's preferable. That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It's also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they're much more at risk of fatalities or being wounded."
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Associated Press
Residents of Ofakim, in southern Israel, inspect a house damaged by rocket fire from Palestinian militants in Gaza
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with top officials in Egypt, France, Qatar and Turkey this weekend in an effort to end the hostilities, her office said.
In Cairo, the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and Hamas are aiming for an ambitious cease-fire proposal aimed at ending the cycle of violence in Gaza once and for all by convincing Israel to end the blockade of the coastal strip it enforces to keep out arms and materiel.
"After this aggression, I think the cost for achieving any cease-fire should be higher than the normal things," said Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "The minimum people would like to have is a cease-fire that would end the siege of Gaza."
Israel is looking for a cease-fire deal that brings it more than a brief window of calm before rocket fire resumes again. It also wants Hamas to take responsibility for the security situation in Gaza, allowing Israel to hold Hamas responsible for any attacks, said a person close to the negotiations in Cairo.

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There are indications Israel may be willing to consider a longer-term cease-fire agreement.
A senior U.S. official said the truce proposal in its current form included plans for a phased-in cease-fire that would be "guaranteed" by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey. In the first phase, Israel and Hamas would stop hostilities, the U.S. official said. The second phase would include an easing of the Israeli blockade on Gaza and other measures to ease tensions, but that the specifics remained vague, the official said.
"They're still negotiating" and the outcome is uncertain, the U.S. official said. "I'm not sure it will gel."
"The hope would be a little better than the status quo in that you would put in place a process to a more viable and long term solution but we're really in the initial stages right now," the official said.
The official said all sides are being secretive about what this might look like to preserve their ability to negotiate without coming under outside pressure.

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Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil made a historic visit to the Gaza Strip amid the biggest flare-up of violence in years between Israel and Hamas, underscoring the acute dilemma Egypt's new Islamist government faces. Matt Bradley has details from the Gaza Strip on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.
After Friday prayers at the Azhar mosque in Cairo, worshipers chanted anti-Israel slogans in response to the clashes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Video by WSj's Sam Dagher via #WorldStream.
Israeli officials refused to comment on the content of the negotiations. Israel's envoy arrived Sunday, met only with Egyptian intelligence officers before returning the same day to Israel, said two people close to the negotiations. He didn't meet representatives of President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt, or the Turkish and Qatari leaders, these people said.
Israeli officials said they were frustrated with the way Egypt has handled the negotiations so far. They accuse Qatar, Egypt and Turkey of all but freezing them out of the talks. Egyptian officials weren't available for comment.
Mr. Morsi comes from a Muslim Brotherhood movement whose Islamist leaders have forsworn any direct contacts with Israel. He now finds himself head of a government trying to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
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Associated Press
Israel widened its range of targets in the Gaza Strip to include communications centers and broadcast headquarters connected to armed Palestinian groups, including offices of Hamas's Al Quds television station. Above, smoke rises after an Israeli strike in Gaza City.
"The new Egyptians don't know too much about what to do," said one senior Israeli official. "They started talking to Hamas and realized that it turns out they also need to talk to Israel because that's what mediation is all about and they're not prepared to do that. What you have is Muslim Brothers talking to Muslim Brothers while we sit on the sideline."
The conflict's toll on Sunday included 11 members of a single family who were killed when their Gaza City home was flattened by an Israeli bomb in the single deadliest airstrike in the conflict so far.
Israel's military said the target in the strike was Yihia Abayah, a senior Hamas commander in charge of rocket operations in Gaza. Mr. Abayah didn't appear to be hit in the strike and it was unclear what his connection to the home was or whether it was an errant strike.
Militants in Gaza continued to send dozens of rockets deep into Israel on Sunday. Two missiles fired at Tel Aviv were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.
The thrust of the Israeli air and artillery campaign shifted over the weekend from striking rocket arsenals and firing positions, to targeting the homes of senior Hamas commanders and the offices of Hamas politicians in Gaza. That has brought the campaign into Gaza's urban core, increasing the likelihood of civilian casualties.
Israel struck the office building housing several media organizations, including Hamas' Al Aqsa TV and Britain's Sky News, wounding eight journalists, according to Gazan health officials. One journalist from the Beirut-based Al-Quds television lost his leg in the attack, according to Gazan health officials.
Gaza health officials say the five-day death toll now stands at 79 Palestinians, about half of them women and children. Three Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rocket fire.

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