Israel, Hamas try; truce elusive

Clinton joins talks; Gaza’s toll tops 135

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end a news conference Tuesday in Jerusalem after a late-night meeting on an Israeli-Hamas cease-fire.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end a news conference Tuesday in Jerusalem after a late-night meeting on an Israeli-Hamas cease-fire.

— Israel and the Hamas militant group edged closer to a cease-fire Tuesday to end a week-long Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but after a day of furious diplomatic efforts involving the U.S. secretary of state, the U.N. chief and Egypt’s president, a deal remained elusive and attacks persisted from both sides of the border.

Israeli tanks and gunboats pummeled targets in Gaza in what appeared to be a lastminute burst of fire, and at least 200 rockets were fired into Israel. As talks dragged on near midnight, Israeli and Hamas officials, communicating through Egyptian mediators, expressed hope that a deal would soon be reached, but cautioned that it was far from certain.

“If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solu- tion to this problem by diplomatic means, we prefer that. But if not, then I am sure you will understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions are necessary to defend its people,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a late-night meeting with visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton was hastily dispatched to the region by President Barack Obama to join a high-profile group of world leaders working to halt the violence. Standing alongside the Israeli leader, Clinton indicated it could take some time to iron out an agreement.

“In the days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region toward an outcome that bolsters security for the people of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region,” she said.

Clinton expressed sorrow for the heavy loss of life on both sides but called for the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel to end and stressed that the American commitment to Israel’s security is “rock solid.”

“The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike,” she said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Clinton met with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for two hours.

“They discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring about a sustainable outcome that protects Israel’s security and improves the lives of civilians in Gaza,” Nuland said. “They also consulted on her impending stops in Ramallah and Cairo, including Egyptian efforts to advance de-escalation.”

Israel launched the offensive last Wednesday in a bid to end months of rocket attacks out of the Hamas-run territory, which lies on Israel’s southern flank. After assassinating Hamas’ military chief, Israel has carried out a blistering campaign of airstrikes, targeting rocket launchers, storage sites and wanted militants.

The campaign has killed more than 130 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and wounded hundreds of others. Five Israelis have been killed by rocket fire, including a soldier and a civilian contractor Tuesday.

With Israel massing thousands of ground troops on the Gaza border, diplomats raced throughout the region in search of a formula to halt the fighting.

In a meeting with Netanyahu, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show “maximum restraint.”

“Further escalation benefits no one,” he said.

Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt’s Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.

Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.

Egypt’s new Islamist government is expected to play a key role in maintaining a deal.

The crisis has thrust Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi, into the spotlight as he plays a difficult balancing act.

Morsi belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’ parent movement, and clearly sympathizes with the Islamic militant group. At the same time, he relies heavily on U.S. aid and is trying to preserve a historic peace agreement with Israel.

Earlier, Morsi raised hopes that a cease-fire was near when he predicted the negotiations would yield “positive results” during the coming hours.

Netanyahu also said his country would be a “willing partner” in a cease-fire agreement.

But as the talks stretched into the evening, it became clear that a deal remained a ways off.

“Most likely the deal will be struck tomorrow. Israel has not responded to some demands, which delayed the deal,” Hamas official Izzat Risheq said.

Hamas officials refused to discuss the remaining sticking points.

Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see whether Hamas could enforce a truce.

Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations said Hamas wanted assurances of a comprehensive deal that included new border arrangements — and were resisting Israeli proposals for a phased agreement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Although Israel claims it has inflicted heavy damage on militants’ capabilities, its roughly 1,550 airstrikes and shelling attacks have failed to halt the rocket fire.

More than 1,400 rockets have been fired at Israel, including about 200 on Tuesday. A U.S.-financed Israeli rocketdefense system has knocked down roughly 400 of the incoming projectiles.

Violence raged on as the talks continued. An airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV station, Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. A third journalist, from Al Quds Educational Radio, a private station, also was killed.

The Al-Aqsa TV cameramen were in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted the station’s offices, saying they served as a Hamas communications post.

Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people and badly damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Minutes before Ban’s arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of Gaza City along specific roads. The army “is not targeting any of you, and doesn’t want to harm you or your families,” the leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them “psychological warfare.”

Israeli security officials acknowledge they rely on a network of Palestinian informants to identify targets. Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection Tuesday, witnesses said.

A mob surrounded five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing, and one of the bodies was dragged through the streets by a motorcycle.

Hamas did not provide any evidence against the purported collaborators.

Clinton was also scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Egyptian leaders in Cairo today. Turkey’s foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they entered the territory.

“Turkey is standing by you,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. “Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza.”

At the United Nations, U.N. ambassadors after hours of private meetings announced the Security Council will hold an open debate on the Gaza crisis this afternoon if a cease-fire is not called before then. The move comes after the United States blocked adoption of a unanimous press statement from the council because it did not explicitly criticize Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel.

Within Hamas itself, there are divisions and fractured views on the truce negotiations. In Gaza on Tuesday, Fawzi Barhoum, the Hamas spokesman, said that “we hold absolutely no hope of Hillary Clinton” helping to resolve the conflict.

“We hold no hope in Obama or Hillary Clinton to do anything, just to save the occupation in their crisis,” Barhoum said in an interview outside Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “Just support the occupation so it can do more and more massacres.”

Obama, who was in Asia, had found himself repeatedly on the phone with Middle Eastern leaders in recent days and decided that Clinton, who also spoke to a dozen of her counterparts here, could make the difference in establishing a cease-fire and asked her to make the trip.

Netanyahu’s calculations are numerous. He has an election looming in January, and agreeing to stop his operation in Gaza could be risky if rocket fire resumed. But sending troops into Gaza poses perhaps even more risks.

“The Israeli government will face its voters without any tangible achievement in hand to show,” Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, wrote Tuesday. He said that he did not believe Netanyahu had begun this operation with electoral considerations in mind, but that “the deliberations about ending it are deeply affected by political calculations.”

Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman, Ibrahim Barzak, Hamza Hendawi, Karin Laub and Ian Deitch of The Associated Press and by Ethan Bronner, David D. Kirkpatrick, Jodi Rudoren, Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner, Peter Baker, David E. Sanger, Mark Landler and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/21/2012

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