Israelis blast Hamas-flown drone

Kerry due in Cairo after Egyptians propose cease-fire

A Palestinian confronts an Israeli soldier (left) during a demonstration against Israeli military action in Gaza, near the West Bank town of Nablus, July 14, 2014.
A Palestinian confronts an Israeli soldier (left) during a demonstration against Israeli military action in Gaza, near the West Bank town of Nablus, July 14, 2014.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military intercepted an unmanned aircraft flown from Gaza on Monday, blowing it apart in midair just offshore from the Israeli port city of Ashdod, a spokesman said. The drone attack by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, added a new element to the week-long conflict with Israel.

The military wing of Hamas claimed Monday that it had sent "a number of drones" flying into Israel on "special missions," saying on its website that the aircraft were one of the "surprises" it had promised over the past week.

There were growing international calls for a cease-fire, including a plan for a cooling-off period and talks put forward Monday by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry for discussion by the Arab League. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to arrive in Cairo as early as today, according to officials in the region and the Egyptian state news agency.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry announced a three-step plan starting with a temporary cease-fire to go into effect within 12 hours of "unconditional acceptance" by the two sides. That would be followed by the opening of Gaza's border crossings and talks in Cairo between the sides within two days, according to the statement.

In a speech broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, confirmed that there was "diplomatic movement." He said Hamas was seeking not only an end to the fighting, but also an easing of a blockade that has crippled life in Gaza.

"The problem is not going back to the agreement on calm because we want this aggression to stop," he said. "The problem is the reality of Gaza, the siege, the starving, the bombing. ... The siege must stop, and Gaza people need to live in dignity."

A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security Cabinet had been called for early this morning to discuss the proposal and that it was "being considered very seriously."

Naftali Bennett, a member of the Security Cabinet, said he would oppose the proposal, calling it "good for Hamas and bad for Israel."

"A cease-fire at the present time shows the government's weakness," he said in a statement. "A cease-fire now will create a bigger campaign against the south of the country and more rocket attacks in another year."

Tony Blair, the special envoy of the quartet of Middle East peacemakers, which includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, welcomed the Egyptian proposal in a statement. He said: "The hope is that this cease-fire will allow us to put in place such a long-term strategy for the future in Gaza, and the West Bank. The international community will give its full backing to such an initiative."

But there was no letup in the hostilities Monday as Israel continued its air offensive against militant groups in Gaza and rockets continued to fly out of Gaza into Israel. One rocket struck a Bedouin encampment in the Negev desert and injured two sisters ages 15 and 10, according to Israeli police, who said one of the girls' injuries were severe.

Israel targeted about 100 "terror sites" in Hamas-controlled Gaza on Monday while more than 70 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave, the army said. Israel, the U.S. and European Union classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The Israeli military said three rockets were fired at the southern city of Eilat early this morning, lightly injuring two people and sparking a fire. The military said it did not immediately know who was behind the rocket fire. Previous rocket attacks on Eilat were from radical Islamic militants in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula.

The death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes continued to mount. The Health Ministry in Gaza said 185 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed, and more than 1,000 people wounded. The Israelis have suffered no fatalities, in large part because of a new rocket-defense system that has intercepted dozens of incoming projectiles.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, the commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, which assists Palestinian refugees, said in a news briefing that he was "deeply alarmed and affected by the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and the devastating human and physical toll it is taking on civilians, including Palestine refugees."

He said it appeared that "women and children make up a sizable number of victims of the current strikes."

According to a statement issued by his office, Krahenbuhl called on the Israeli army to "put an end to attacks against, or endangering, civilians and civilian infrastructure, which are contrary to international humanitarian law." He also called for an end to rocket fire from Gaza aimed at Israel, which the U.N. has described as indiscriminate.

Israeli troops are massed at the border with Gaza, awaiting a government decision about whether to mount a ground operation, which would probably cause significantly more casualties.

Israeli military officials say they are operating with as much caution as possible to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, and have taken pains to explain what they call the challenging environment in which they are operating. They say Hamas has placed rockets and launchers in and near homes, schools and hospitals, and they accuse militant groups of using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields.

In a telephone interview, the commander of the 107th Squadron, which is engaged in Gaza using F-16 fighters, said the air force was working methodically according to "a clear policy of minimum harm to civilians," but that everybody knew Gaza was not a "sterile area." Under military rules governing the interview, the squadron commander cannot be identified by name.

It was not immediately clear whether the Hamas drone that was intercepted off Ashdod, 14 miles north of the Gaza Strip, was carrying explosives or surveillance equipment. The Israeli military said it downed the drone using a Patriot surface-to-air missile.

"It was shot to smithereens," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an army spokesman.

The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said in a statement that "Hamas is trying to chalk up an achievement at any price."

Israel has intercepted other drones in recent years, including at least two flown by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group. The Israel Defense Forces claimed to have destroyed a drone-manufacturing facility in Gaza in 2012 during a round of cross-border fighting.

Hamas claimed on its website that it had mounted three drone sorties of at least two aircraft each over Israel on Monday, including one it said had hovered over the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces. Lerner said that while he could not rule out other drone flights, he was not aware of any sortie over Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military also found itself involved in a clash Monday in the West Bank, where troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in the village of Samua. The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, identified the dead man as Munir Ahmed Hamdan al-Badarin, 21. An Israeli military spokesman said initial information indicated that several Palestinians had been throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli cars and that one or more soldiers opened fire in response. The spokesman said the shooting was under investigation.

Also Monday, multiple European countries announced dozens of evacuations from Gaza amid violence in the region.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said 27 Britons and their Palestinian dependents left Gaza late Sunday through Israel to Jordan. Romania's foreign ministry said 84 citizens living in Gaza in mixed Romanian-Palestinian families arrived at an air base north of Bucharest on Monday from Amman, Jordan.

In Sweden, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted that 93 Swedish citizens had been evacuated from Gaza to Jordan. Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Erik Wirkensjo said the Swedes were among a few hundred other nationals who were evacuated from Gaza on Sunday.

In Turkey, the foreign ministry said it assisted 28 Turkish citizens who requested help to leave the region. The group crossed into Jordan on Monday.

Information for this article was contributed by Isabel Kershner, Patrick J. Lyons, Kareem Fahim and Fares Akram of The New York Times; by Maggie Michael, Josef Federman, Karin Laub, Yousur Alhlour, Ian Deitch, Josh Lederman, Ibrahim Barzak and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Calev Ben-David, Zaid Sabah and Saud Abu Ramadan of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 07/15/2014

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