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"There is nothing in the proposal that if we declare a unilateral cease-fire it will mean anything to Hamas and that it will ensure a durable ceasefire afterwards," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the Washington Post.
"If conditions will ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," an aide quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying, according to Reuters.
"We didn't start this operation just to end it with rocket fire continuing as it did before it began," Olmert said, according a participant in a meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. "Imagine if we declare a unilateral ceasefire and a few days later rockets fall on (the town of) Ashkelon. What will that do to Israel's deterrence?"
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had proposed the 48-hour truce in order to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food, medical supplies and other necessities.
"The human cost of this conflict is unacceptable and the humanitarian situation is getting worse by the hour," British international development secretary Douglas Alexander said Wednesday, as he announced a $10 million emergency aid package.
Israel said it is already letting humanitarian supplies into Gaza -- it has sent 100 trucks with emergency food and medicine, defense spokesman Peter Lerner said.
On Wednesday, Hamas militants launched at least 20 rockets into Israel, including some that hit a closed school in Beersheba, more than 20 miles from the Gaza border.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Olmert, said the country's leaders think it is important to keep up the pressure on Hamas.
"We cannot give them a respite to rearm and regroup,"
he said, according to the New York Times. "We need
a real, sustainable solution, not a Band-Aid."
Israel's punishing air attacks, now in their fifth day, have targeted Hamas leaders' homes, government complexes, buildings of the Islamic University in Gaza City, and smugglers tunnels into Egypt, among other targets.
More than 370 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 62 women and children and an unknown number of civilian men, according to the United Nations.
Gaza City was entirely without electricity on Wednesday, and long lines stretched outside the few bakeries and grocery stores that were open, according to the New York Times.
Osama Alaf, 41, told the paper that he spent four hours waiting in line to buy bread. "I bought flour until now," he said, "I don't have cooking gas, but I make a fire out of cartons and paper and make bread that way."
He told the paper he blamed "Israel, which is slaughtering us, and whoever is cooperating with Israel, like Egypt."
The Egyptian government, which brokered a six-month cease-fire that expired Dec. 19, and which has blamed Hamas for the collapse of that cease-fire, is coming under increasing pressure from some of its own citizens to show support Hamas and open its border with Gaza.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in Cairo, where Arab leaders were holding an emergency meeting Wednesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was to travel Thursday to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has intervened in other world conflicts in recent months, most recently to help halt fighting between Russia and Georgia in August.
---- Compiled from wire reports and other media sources |
On World AIDS Day, Strategy for Future of PEPFAR Released
