Israel continued airstrikes against Gaza Strip targets for a fourth day on Tuesday, destroying civic and other buildings linked to the militant Hamas movement in a campaign Israeli leaders say will continue until the group is crippled.
Diplomatic efforts to calm the situation are expected to accelerate this week, with European foreign ministers scheduled to meet in Paris today and Arab diplomats set to gather in Cairo on Wednesday.
In advance of the Paris session, the European Commission called for “an immediate halt to military hostilities” in order to spare Gaza’s civilian population, while demanding that Hamas also stop firing its rockets into Israel. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday had also called for a ceasefire.
Though the pace of bombing appeared to slow on Tuesday, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio that at this point “there is no room for a ceasefire,” according to news reports from the region. “The Israeli army must not stop the operation before breaking the will of the Palestinians, of Hamas, to continue to fire at Israel.”
As a follow-up to our ongoing conversations, I recommend [url=http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/a_fatah_friend_writes_im_suppo.php]this short post[/url] by Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic magazine.
[blockquote] I’ve been talking to friends of mine, former Palestinian Authority intelligence officials (ejected from power by the Hamas coup), and they tell me that not only are they rooting for the Israelis to decimate Hamas, but that Fatah has actually been assisting the Israelis with targeting information[/blockquote]