Hopes rise for Gaza as Israel considers ceasefire deal

Israel gave a guarded welcome to a ceasefire proposal for Gaza today raising hopes its bloody 12-day offensive could be winding down.

Both Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership in charge of the West Bank had accepted the plan but Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they would only support a deal if it included an opening of their borders.

Both Israel and Hamas appeared to seek guarantees about the details of a ceasefire before agreeing to halt the fighting.

Israel said it would support the proposal only if it halts “hostile fire” from Hamas in Gaza and includes measures to prevent the militant group from rearming.

Hamas said Israel did not seem to be serious.“Israel is still widening and escalating its aggression and is not giving any positive signals in response to these efforts,” a spokesman said.

Israel’s leaders – including the top three of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak – were deciding whether to broaden the operation in Gaza or accept the plan being proposed by Egypt and France.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the initiative calls for an immediate ceasefire by Israel and Palestinian factions for a limited period to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and an urgent meeting of Israel and the Palestinian side on arrangements to prevent any repetition of military action and to deal with the causes.

Meanwhile Israel’s military scaled back attacks in Gaza for three hours to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians.

With criticism rising of the operation’s growing civilian death toll and Gazans increasingly suffering the effects of non-stop airstrikes and shelling, Israel’s military said it would open “humanitarian corridors” to allow aid supplies to reach Palestinians.

Before the brief lull, Israel said it struck 40 Hamas targets during the hours of darkness. Gaza health officials said strikes Wednesday morning killed eight people.

Outrage over an Israeli strike yesterday next to a UN school continued, with the agency responsible for the building demanding an “impartial investigation” into the attack which killed at least 39 people.

Israel says its forces fired at militants who launched mortars from that location.

Christopher Gunness of the UN relief and Works Agency, responsible for the school, said the agency was “99.9% certain there were no militants or military activity in its school.”

He demanded an investigation, and punishment for anyone found to have violated international law.

About 300 of the more than 670 Palestinians killed so far are civilians. At least 130 are children aged 16 and under, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which tracks casualties.

The number of armed fighters killed remains unclear. Gaza residents say Hamas fighters have begun wearing civilian clothes, and the organisation is keeping its casualties secret and housing its wounded and dead in undisclosed locations.

Israel has lost six soldiers since launching a ground offensive on Saturday - four of them in “friendly fire” incidents – and four other Israelis have been killed by rocket fire, three of them civilians.

Israel’s lull in operations could ease the plight of civilians in Gaza, where much of the territory has no power or running water, because pumps are dependent on electricity.

More than 500 aid trucks have been shipped into Gaza since operations began. But even when aid crosses into Gaza military operations have prevented officials from distributing it, leading to food shortages in some areas.