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| A controlled explosion of a Palestinian house is seen as Israeli tanks move inside the Gaza Strip, 16 Jan 2009 |
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with new strikes Saturday, as Israeli leaders prepared to decide whether to end their three-week offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas.
In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, medical workers say Israeli shelling killed at least two people at a United Nations-run school where hundreds of civilians have taken refuge. The victims identified were a woman and a child.
Israel’s military said it carried out overnight air strikes on 50 Hamas targets, including suspected rocket-launching sites and arms smuggling tunnels.
The renewed attacks come as Israeli officials say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security Cabinet is expected to vote Saturday on a unilateral cease-fire.
In Cairo, Hamas officials are due to continue truce talks with Egyptian negotiators. Israeli envoy Amos Gilad met with the mediators on Friday.
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| Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, and UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, during joint press conference at Abbas’s compound in West Bank city of Ramallah, 16 Jan 2009 |
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also moving forward with his diplomatic efforts, traveling to Lebanon Saturday for talks on the Gaza conflict.
The U.N. chief has repeatedly called on both Israel and Hamas to abide by a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
On Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement in Washington offering U.S. help to Israel in solving the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza. The deal is intended to keep Hamas from re-arming if a cease-fire is reached.
Israel has called for an end to Palestinian rocket attacks and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
Hamas has proposed a year-long, renewable truce in Gaza, leading to the withdrawal of Israeli troops within a week and the immediate opening of all border crossings.
Despite talk of progress on a cease-fire, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told Arab leaders the Islamist group would not accept Israeli conditions for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. He made the comments during an emergency summit in Doha, Qatar.
At Friday’s Doha summit, Qatar and Mauritania announced they would cut political and economic ties with Israel to protest the fighting in Gaza.
The summit went ahead despite a boycott by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas ousted from Gaza, highlighting fault lines in the Arab world over the conflict.
Palestinian medics say more than 1,100 Gazans, including 300 children, have been killed in Israel’s three-week-long campaign. Thirteen Israeli soldiers and civilians have also died in the conflict.
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