Israeli ministers decided Wednesday against launching a major offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying they would give Egypt more time to broker a calm with the territory's Hamas rulers.
The Israeli government said it would push ahead with preparations for a possible invasion and keep attacking Palestinian gunmen to try to stop daily rocket and mortar barrages on southern Israel.
The bloodshed continued on Wednesday. A 55-year-old Palestinian civilian and two gunmen were killed in clashes with Israeli troops during a brief incursion in southern Gaza Strip, and two Israeli civilians were hurt by mortar shells fired from the Strip that hit a paint factory where an Israeli was killed by a shell last week.
Israel's Security Cabinet, made up of senior ministers, deflected pressure to order the army into Gaza immediately. Instead, it authorized Defense Minister Ehud Barak to "exhaust the dialogue with Egypt in order to achieve all of Israel's conditions for an actual calm." At the same time, however, the Security Cabinet instructed commanders "to prepare for military action in the Gaza Strip, according to a rapid timetable, should the Cabinet convene and make a decision to this effect," according to a government statement, cited by the AP.
The order added that progress toward releasing an Israeli soldier who has been held by Hamas for two years must be part of a cease-fire deal. Speaking before the Security Cabinet vote, Vice Premier Haim Ramon said there could be both a truce and an invasion. "Even those who support the calm say it would only last a month or two, and then Hamas will violate it," Ramon told Army Radio. "Then we will launch the military operation. Everybody agrees that it is just a matter of when."
On his part, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of double-talk. "The government wants to maneuver and blackmail the Palestinian factions while continuing its daily aggression," Abu Zuhri said.
