In a keynote speech Friday night marking the third anniversary of that war’s end, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah outlined his strategy for Lebanon to deter Israel from launching another offensive. Responding to Israeli threats to flatten southern Lebanese villages and infrastructure, he vowed to attack Tel Aviv if Israel targeted Beirut or its southern suburbs, where Hezbollah’s headquarters are.

“We are now capable of attacking any city or village throughout Israel,” he said, dismissing recent Israeli threats against Hezbollah as psychological warfare. “When Israelis talk a lot, it means that they will do nothing. However, when they are silent like a snake we have to be cautious.” Nasrallah’s comments, delivered via a live video feed to a crowd of flag-waving supporters and invited politicians, were the latest in a month-long barrage of threats from both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border.

The saber-rattling, touched off in mid-July by explosions near an alleged Hezbollah weapons cache here in the hills of south Lebanon, seems driven more by a fear that the other side will take action, than a desire to launch a fresh round of fighting, say analysts and United Nations peacekeepers here.

“Contrary to the talk, the situation on the ground in our area of operations is generally quiet,” says Milos Strugar, senior advisor to the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which patrols the southern Lebanon border district. “In our contacts with all the parties, they reiterate to us their interest in upholding the cessation of hostilities.”

Israel, Hezbollah threaten war – again

The exercise was aimed at testing the air force’s ability to counter rocket and missile attacks from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and archfoe Iran, as well as the infiltration of jets overland, the official told AFP.

This is the first time the Israeli army has simulated strikes from the Islamic republic, located more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away, he said.

The drill, however, did not simulate a strike on Iran, the official said, amid foreign media reports that Israel had recently performed massive air exercises to simulate strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

On Wednesday, Iran said it had successfully test-fired a new medium-range surface to surface missile capable of reaching Israel, a move which raised concern in the United States.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that the exercise “was successful and important. What we saw strengthens our security that there is someone we can trust.”

Heavy air force jet and helicopter activity was noticeable across the country during the drill, among the biggest the air force has ever carried out.

An Israeli army spokesman said the exercise was “routine and part of the army’s annual training plan and is intended to prepare the Israeli air force to successfully face any possible threat.”

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear armed power, suspects the Islamic republic of using its nuclear programme to develop atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran has long denied.

The Jewish state considers Tehran to be its arch-enemy because of repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions topped his agenda and that the Jewish state reserves its right to self-defence against Iran.

Israel wraps up drill to combat Iran strike

The history of private military companies started on June 24, 1997, when experts of the US Intelligence Department proclaimed the PMCs as a major tool in the implementation of the military security policy of the United States and its allies in other countries.

The professional level of a private military company is its major advantage. Inexperienced military men are not welcome there. A PMC member is usually a man between 35-40 years of age. A human being of this age is resistant to stresses and emergency situations. In addition, a man of this age can also do routine work very well, which can not be said about younger men.

Potential fighters of the private military companies possess the required level of experience and have an adequate insight, which allows such units to achieve better results in their activities in comparison with regular armies.

A private military company can be very efficient in local conflicts, where the use of regular armies can be complicated for legal reasons. For example, Russia can not send its troops to Nigeria if Nigerian gunmen attack employees of Russian companies – it would be a gross violation of international laws.

Russian PMCs – Tiger Top Rent Security and Orel Antiterror – do not lag behind their US or British colleagues. The only difference is that Russian PMC fighters are paid a lot less.

Russian PMCs took part in the military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine.

Russia’s largest companies such as Russian Aluminium (Rusal), Lukoil, Rosneft and Gazprom received a carte blanche to form military structures to protect their interests both inside and outside Russia.

Private military companies supply bodyguards for the Afghan president and pilot armed reconnaissance planes and helicopter gunships to destroy Coca crops in Colombia. They are licensed by the State Department; they are contracting with foreign governments, training soldiers and reorganizing militaries in Nigeria, Bulgaria, Taiwan, and Equatorial Guinea. The PMC industry is now worth over $100 billion a year.

Private military companies to supersede regular armies

In a speech made outside the residence of President Shimon Peres, the Likud leader said that protecting Israel would be his greatest responsibility as leader, and condemned “formidable” challenges posed by the Islamic Republic.

However, he did not once mention the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process or a two-state solution throughout his address, omissions that will cause concern within an Obama administration determined to advance the peace process.

The Likud leader held a brief press conference alongside President Peres after he was appointed to form a coalition government, despite only finishing a close second in Israel’s election.

“Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Referring to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in south Lebanon, Mr Netanyahu said: “The terrorist forces of Iran threaten us from the north. For decades, Israel has not faced such formidable challenges.

“The responsibility we face is to achieve security for our country, peace with our neighbours and unity among us.”

He spoke after the UN announced yesterday that Iran had enriched sufficient uranium to amass a nuclear bomb – a third more than previously thought. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has caused alarm in the West over its apparent threats to Israel and support for radical Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Mr Netanyahu’s selection to form a coalition comes despite a narrow defeat in Israel’s general election by Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima party, who had pledged to advance the peace process with the Palestinians.

After taking soundings from all political parties, Mr Peres judged the Likud leader to have a significantly better chance of building a viable coalition after he won the backing of Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrel Beitenu party, which finished third in the national poll.

President Peres said today that, overall, 65 out of 120 seats in Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, backed Mr Netanyahu.

However, concerns arose within minutes of his appointment as to how viable any coalition led by Mr Netanyahu would be, with both Kadima and Ehud Barak, the Labour leader, appearing to choose going into opposition rather than joining his coalition.

This would leave Mr Netanyahu relying on the nationalist Mr Lieberman, who has advocated deporting Arab Israelis who fail to swear an oath of loyalty to the state, and the ultra-orthodox Shas party, whose main focus is the funding of its religious seminaries and schools.

There are fears that Shas and Yisrael Beitenu may also clash with each other in any future coalition, as Mr Lieberman – a staunch secularist – strongly opposes religious schools and seminaries and wants to introduce civil marriages to appease his secular Russian support base, something that Shas staunchly opposes.

A similarly narrow coalition, formed by Mr Netanyahu in 1996, lasted only two years before collapsing after right-wing parties withdrew their support following territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

Making a last-ditch attempt to avoid what many Israelis would regard as an illegitimate government, Mr Netanyahu used his speech to make a final plea for Ms Livni and Mr Barak to join his administration.

“I call on Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Labour Party chairman Ehud Barak and I say to them – let’s unite to secure the future of the State of Israel,” he told reporters.

“I ask to meet with you first to discuss with you a broad national unity government for the good of the people and the state.”

Yet, Ms Livni appeared to have ruled the move out, saying that she would not support a leader who would prevent progress in the peace process. Mr Barak has already declared that Labour should go into opposition to rebuild itself.

“I will not be able to serve as a cover for a lack of direction. I want to lead Israel in a way I believe in, to advance a peace process based on two states for two peoples,” Ms Livni said, after her final meeting with President Peres.

The new administration would also run into immediate conflict with President Obama who has urged a speeding up of the peace process and has tried to cool hostile rhetoric with Iran.

Instead of territorial compromise, Mr Netanyahu has indicated that he prefers economic development measures in the West Bank that allow Israel to maintain continued security control over borders and no dismantling of settlements.

Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian President, this afternoon threatened a complete freeze in relations with any Israeli state led by a politician who does not believe in the two-state solution. This would be disastrous for the West, which has pumped billions into the West Bank in order to prop up his authority in anticipation of a future Palestinian state being built there.

“We will not deal with the Israeli government unless it accepts a two-state solution and accepts to halt settlements and to respect past accords,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Abbas’s spokesman, said.

Binyamin Netanyahu targets Iran after he is appointed Prime Minister – Times Online

The league’s envoy to the United Nations, Yahya Mahmassani called the interception an act of piracy and asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.

Crew members and journalists aboard the Lebanese ship say Israel’s military fired in the ship’s direction before Israeli forces boarded the vessel. The Israeli military denied it fired on the ship.

Israeli officials said the Lebanese ship was escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and that any aid would be transferred to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to the transfer of $43 million into Gaza to allow the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to pay salaries.

Palestinians in Gaza have lacked cash due to an Israeli blockade of the territory. Israel says its blockade is aimed at stopping weapons smuggling to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza.

In other news, a senior Hamas official, Ayman Taha deposited $11 million in an Egyptian bank, after Egyptian authorities prevented him from carrying the cash into Gaza.

The official was part of a delegation in Cairo this week for talks on a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas. The group was later allowed to cross into Gaza, after leaving Cairo without reaching a deal on a cease-fire.

Hamas officials say they hope to return to the Egyptian capital within the next week for further talks. They say they want more information from Israel before signing Egypt’s proposal for an 18-month cease-fire.

Hamas has repeatedly called on Israel to open all border crossings into Gaza. On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also urged the border be opened to allow in humanitarian aid. He made the comments after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington.

In violence on Thursday, Israeli officials say troops shot and killed a Palestinian who threw a grenade near the Gaza-Israel border.

Israel conducted a three-week offensive against Hamas in Gaza to put an end to rocket attacks. More than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed before the offensive ended last month.

VOA News – Arab League Condemns Israeli Seizure of Aid Ship

Past them lies what is known here as the land of resistance – the villages where the Shia militant group Hezbollah controls hearts and minds.

From here, its fighters battled Israel in a fierce conflict in 2006 and now the portraits of Hezbollah fighters killed in that war look down from the roadside billboards.

Some look straight at Israel, which stretches just a couple of hundred of yards away beyond the barbed wire.

Hezbollah’s turn

During the war in Gaza, Israeli officials warned Hezbollah that after Hamas it would be their turn. And so what is happening on the other side of the border concerns everyone in Lebanon.

In Yareen, a small village, a mullah’s voice echoes through the dusty narrow streets. He describes the suffering in Gaza and calls on his followers to pray for the Palestinians.

But it has not been just about the prayers. Twice in the last week, unknown militants launched rockets across the border and Israel retaliated with artillery fire.

It is not clear who was behind the attack. What is clear is that it is a response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

High up in the hills, surrounded by olive groves, UN peacekeepers patrol the patch of land from where rockets were launched.

Little boys from the nearby village hide in bushes and shoot their toy guns at the peacekeepers. “Ciao” – they laugh and shout to the Italian soldiers.

Peacekeepers

For the past two years, 13,000 peacekeepers from 28 countries have been deployed in South Lebanon.

They are working together with the Lebanese army.

Since the conflict in Gaza began, they have found several small stockpiles of rockets. After the first attack, they deployed additional troops.

“We’ve intensified the patrols that we are conducting with the Lebanese army to keep this area safe,” says Yasmina Bouzeian, a spokesperson for the UN force, Unifil.

But the measures that the UN and the Lebanese army are taking failed to prevent a second attack just days later.

Harsh rhetoric

Hezbollah – which always claims responsibility for its actions – says it is not behind these rockets, and some analysts believe that whoever is behind the attack may be trying to drag Hezbollah into the fight.

Nevertheless, the party’s rhetoric has been harsh and militant.

In Beirut last week, tens of thousands came out to celebrate the Shia festival of Ashura and to show their support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Helzbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed the crowd via a videolink. He announced that he was ready for another war, and Israel too has said that its prepared to fight the group.

So far Hezbollah has clearly restrained its fighters from taking military action. But if hostilities break out, it is not only Mr Nasrallah’s supporters who say they will stand behind him.

“I am a Sunni, and I thought that Hezbollah was wrong to fight the 2006 war but if Nasrallah goes to war now, I will support him. What has happened in Gaza is not human,” said one man who lost his family in 2006 and who did not want to be named.

Anger and fear

But while there is a clear sense of anger here, in the South there is also plenty of fear.

Seated on a low plastic chair in front his house, Hajj Rakhal cut up firewood throwing branches in the floor in front of him.

He told me many of his neighbours had packed up and left after the rockets were launched.

“I don’t know who is behind these attacks, whoever it is wants to drag us into the war. We are very worried,” he said.

“If these attacks continue Israel will start another conflict,” he says.

For the people of Southern Lebanon, the threat of violence is never far, and the war in Gaza has brought it closer.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Lebanese fear Israel’s next step

Mr. Olmert, who said all Israeli objectives for the war had been reached, said Israel was responding positively to a call by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt earlier in the day for an immediate cease-fire, in a clearly orchestrated move by two countries that both see the Hamas movement in Gaza as a threat. Meanwhile, Hamas leaders outside Gaza have insisted that the group will fight on, regardless of any Israeli declaration.

The announcement came on a day in which Israel was again criticized by the United Nations over civilian deaths in Gaza — this time after a tank fired at a United Nations school, killing two young brothers taking shelter there.

United Nations aid officials raised questions about whether the attack, and others like it, should be investigated as war crimes. The Israeli Army said that it was investigating the reports at the highest level but that initial inquiries indicated that troops were returning fire from near or within the school.

The Israeli cease-fire, which becomes effective at 2 a.m. Sunday, could mean an effective end to a three-week-old war that has killed at least 1,200 Palestinians, with more buried under rubble, and 13 Israelis. But even then, the shape of any lasting peace was far from clear.

Israel has signaled that its troops will stay in Gaza until a formal truce is signed that meets Israeli goals of stopping rocket fire from Gaza and sharply hindering the smuggling of arms, weapons, cash and fighters into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. But the government says it will not sign any deal with Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and whose rule over Gaza Israel does not want to recognize.

Also, Israeli officials said that they reserved the right to attack again in the future if Hamas kept firing rockets into Israel. Hamas, battered but hardly broken, is expected to reassert its political control over Gaza and to resist any attempt to restore a presence for Fatah, the rival faction that runs the Palestinian Authority, within Gaza.

The announcement of the unilateral cease-fire came on the 22nd day of the war, after repeated calls by the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for an immediate halt to the fighting and the deaths of civilians.

The military said that it struck hundreds of targets overnight, including rocket-launching sites, weapons caches and 70 smuggling tunnels, and that its troops tightened the encirclement of Gaza City.

Though exiled Hamas figures vowed to keep fighting, it was unclear how the cease-fire will be received by leaders within Gaza. The group’s representatives were scheduled to meet Egyptian officials in Cairo who are trying to pull together a sustainable truce of at least a year that will end rocket fire into Israel, hinder Hamas resupply and reopen all the crossings into encircled Gaza from both Israel and Egypt.

Particularly concerned about limiting smuggling, the United States and Israel signed a “memorandum of understanding” on Friday in Washington that calls for expanded cooperation to prevent Hamas from rearming through Egypt. The agreement, which is vague, promises increased American technical assistance and international monitors, presumably to be based in Egypt, to crack down on the smuggling.

As important, the United States agreed to work with NATO partners to interdict arms smuggling into Gaza by land and sea from Syria and Iran, and in a letter, Britain, France and Germany also offered to help interdict the smuggling of arms to Hamas.

On Saturday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced a summit meeting about Gaza for Sunday, of which Mr. Mubarak would be co-chairman. Mr. Sarkozy announced that Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain would attend; Mr. Brown said later he was “considering” attending. Egypt has invited Italy, Spain, Turkey, Mr. Ban and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, whose Fatah party governs the West Bank. The meeting, to take place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik, is about bringing a halt to the fighting in a sustainable way and reconstruction aid for Gaza.

While Mr. Sarkozy initiated the process with Mr. Mubarak in the waning days of the Bush administration, it has been in the end a deal shaped by Egypt and Israel.

Mr. Mubarak’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that his country would not be bound by the memorandum of understanding agreed to by the United States and Israel and would not accept foreign troops on its soil. But officials of both Israel and the United States say Egypt has been showing a new seriousness about stopping the smuggling.

The Arab and Muslim world again appeared to be split into two camps. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been openly critical of Hamas, pressing it to agree to a cease-fire. Qatar, meanwhile, which is close to Iran, held a meeting with Syria, Iran, Mauritania and Hamas’s exiled political leader, Khaled Meshal, as the Palestinian representative. Mr. Abbas, who is supported by the United States and Egypt, had refused to go to Qatar.

In Beit Lahiya, some 1,600 displaced Gazans have taken shelter at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, which cares for Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants.

John Ging, the Gaza director of the agency, said that two brothers, ages 5 and 7, were killed about 7 a.m. by Israeli fire at the school. Their mother, who was among 14 others wounded, had her legs blown off.

“These two little boys are as innocent, indisputably, as they are dead,” Mr. Ging said. “The question now being asked is: is this and the killing of all other innocent civilians in Gaza a war crime?”

Christopher Gunness, the refugee agency’s spokesman, said: “Where you have a direct hit on an Unrwa school where about 1,600 people had taken refuge, where the Israeli Army knows the coordinates and knows who’s there, where this comes as the latest in a catalogue of direct and indirect attacks on Unrwa facilities, there have to be investigations to establish whether war crimes have been committed,” as well, he added “as violations of international humanitarian law.”

The strike was the fourth time Israel has hit an Unrwa school during the war on Hamas. On Jan. 6, Mr. Ging said, 43 people died when an Israeli shell hit the compound of a school in Jabaliya. Israel has disputed the death toll and said it was returning mortar fire from the school compound.

Four Israeli soldiers, two of them officers, were seriously hurt by mortar fire in fighting on Saturday morning, the army said, suggesting that they were victims of friendly fire. And it said that Hamas had fired 12 rockets at Israel on Saturday, a sharp reduction from daily totals since the start of the war.

While the details are debated and the dead are counted, a critical long-term issue is whether the Gaza operation restores Israel’s deterrent. Israel wants Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Arab world to view it as a nation too strong and powerful to seriously threaten or attack. That motivation is one reason, Israeli officials say privately, for going into Gaza so hard, using such firepower, and fighting Hamas as an enemy army.

The answer won’t be known for many months, but the key to the Muslim world’s reaction is actually that of the Israeli public, said Yossi Klein Halevi, of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies in Jerusalem. “The Arabs take their cue from Israeli responses,” he said. “Deterrence is about how Israelis feel, whether they feel they’ve won or lost.”

Mr. Halevi cited both the 1973 war — which Egyptians celebrate and Israelis mourn, though it ended with a spectacular Israel counterattack — and the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, apologized for the 2006 war on television, “but he quickly reversed himself to declare a wonderful victory when he saw the Israeli public declaring defeat,” Mr. Halevi said.

Even more important, perhaps, this Gazan war is a test case for any potential Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank. If Israelis feel that the West Bank will turn into another kind of chaotic, Hamas-run Gaza, they will be unwilling to withdraw — especially if they believe that once they withdrew, and if they were attacked from the West Bank, they would not be allowed to respond with force.

“Gaza is an important test of whether we can defend ourselves within the 1967 boundaries,” Mr. Halevi said, noting that Hamas had been attacking Israel proper, not settlements. “Will we be able to defend ourselves if we need to from the West Bank? Will the international community let us?”

The Israeli public has stayed united behind the war as a necessary battle, despite serious misgivings about the death toll of Palestinian civilians and international condemnation. Even Meretz, a party on the left of Israeli politics, supported the air war.

Hamas has modeled itself on Hezbollah, calling on Iranian support. Mr. Nasrallah once spoke of Israeli power as a spider web — impressive from afar, but easily brushed aside. This war against Hamas, Mr. Halevi said, “is the revenge of the spider.”

Israel Declares Cease Fire; Hamas Says It Will Fight On – NYTimes.com

If Israel agrees to stop shooting, Israel radio said a truce summit would be held in Cairo Sunday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Israeli leaders expected to attend.

Hamas’ political chief rejected Israel’s conditions, but negotiators for the Islamic militant group were in behind-the-scenes contact with mediators in Cairo and signaled it was time for a truce.

“If they are ready, we are ready,” Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas figure, told Sky News.

Israel launched its military offensive Dec. 27 to try to halt Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, and top envoys were in Cairo and Washington on Friday to discuss cease-fire terms.

Palestinian medics say the fighting has killed at least 1,140 Palestinians and Israel’s bombing campaign caused massive destruction in the Gaza Strip. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, four by rocket fire, according to Israel.

The Israeli vote was scheduled hours after the U.S. paved the way by agreeing to provide assurances that Hamas will not be able to rearm if Israel approves a cease-fire. It comes ahead of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday, and Israeli elections next month.

A senior Israeli official said a vote approving the truce would amount to a “unilateral” cease-fire, though Israeli forces would only leave Gaza after an official declaration that the fighting was over. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

A truce would begin a phased process in which Israel halts its military offensive and then gauges the reaction from Hamas militants, the official said. If the militants continue to fire rockets, the assault would resume.

Under the deal, Egypt would shut down weapons smuggling routes with international help, and discussions on opening Gaza’s blockaded border crossings would take place at a later date.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban, who had weekend visits planned to Lebanon and Syria, was considering whether to attend a summit in Cairo Sunday, adding: “There’s been no decision yet.”

Israeli leaders were also considering whether to attend the summit, the senior Israeli official said.

The diplomatic developments coincided with an easing of violence in Gaza, where Israeli assaults killed 14 Palestinians on Friday, a lower death toll than in recent days. Palestinian medics took advantage of the relative calm, digging out 25 bodies buried under rubble in areas where Israeli forces and militants had clashed.

Palestinians heard dozens of Israeli tanks and other military vehicles roll away from the eastern and southern edges of Gaza City. An Israeli security official said the tanks would redeploy and were not withdrawing. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Israeli envoy Amos Gilad returned from Cairo and reported “substantial progress” in truce talks with Egyptian mediators, said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“I hope we are entering the endgame and that our goal of sustained and durable quiet in the south is about to be attained,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed an agreement intended to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza if a cease-fire is implemented.

Livni described the deal as “vital … for a cessation of hostility” and said it was meant “to complement Egyptian actions and to end of the flow of weapons to Gaza.”

Earlier, Rice said she hoped European countries would work out similar bilateral agreements with Israel.

“There are a number of conditions that need to be obtained if a cease-fire is to be durable,” Rice said. “Among them is to do something about the weapons smuggling and the potential for resupply of Hamas from other places, including from Iran.”

The agreement outlines a framework under which the United States commits detection and surveillance equipment, as well as logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and other nations to be used in monitoring Gaza’s land and sea borders.

Rice and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Obama and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton had been consulted on the details of the document, which was concluded after frenetic negotiations to address Israeli concerns that Hamas would use a cease-fire to stock up on weapons.

A diplomat on the U.N. Security Council in New York said he was reasonably optimistic that “we are in the last leg of the negotiations,” though some issues remain unresolved.

There were long discussions on border security because the Egyptians don’t want any kind of international presence on their side of the border, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are being held behind closed doors.

“Everything has to be on the other side of the border, which means there’s a problem of who will be there, not only on behalf of the international community, but also which Palestinians. So it’s linked to a potential agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority — so it’s linked to other discussions,” the diplomat said.

In addition, he said, discussions were under way with the U.S. on technology to help locate and destroy the tunnels Hamas has used to smuggle in weapons.

In Gaza, residents said they would welcome an end to the fighting, but expressed skepticism a cease-fire can hold.

“Everybody wants the world to return to what it was. But I think it’s empty words,” said Ghadir Mohammed, who was forced to flee her Gaza City home because of the fighting. “Let’s assume if Hamas fires a rocket, will they be quiet about it? Israel isn’t the kind to be quiet.”

Hiba Dahshan from the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place, said: “We are exhausted. We need a solution. Hopefully they’ll halt fire.”

A resident of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, which has been targeted by Hamas rockets, said the army needed to free Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit — abducted by Hamas in 2006 — and be sure there would be quiet in southern Israel before stopping the fight.

“For eight years, they have been shooting at us,” said Yigal Hakmon, manager of a convenience store. “We can’t stop in the middle. We have to finish. We have to kill all the Hamas people.”

Hamas, which has controlled the tiny Mediterranean strip since 2007, has demanded an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the opening of blockaded border crossings.

Mohamed Nazzal, a Hamas official based in Damascus, said the Egyptians invited Hamas on Friday for more discussions.

“It is expected that we go to see what is the opinion of the Israelis on the Hamas propositions,” Nazzal said.

The Syrian-based Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal took a hard line at a summit of Arab countries in the Qatari capital of Doha, asking them to cut off any ties with Israel.

“We will not accept Israel’s conditions for a cease-fire,” Mashaal told the summit. He said Hamas demands that “the aggression stop,” Israeli troops withdraw and crossings into Gaza open immediately.

Qatar and Mauritania heeded Mashaal’s call, suspending political and economic contacts with Israel to protest the fighting. Qatar does not have diplomatic relations with Israel but maintains lower-level ties; Mauritania has full relations, but Israel’s embassy in Mauritania was to remain and its ambassador was not being expelled.

Israel says it’s near ‘endgame’ for Gaza offensive – Yahoo! News

On Thursday, a salvo hit northern Israel but Lebanese and Israeli officials were quick to play down that incident, blaming not the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, an ally of Gaza’s Hamas, but smaller, Palestinian groups in Lebanon. Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

“Three rockets fired into Israel landed outside the city of Kiryat Shmona,“ police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about Wednesday’s incident in the Galilee.

Security sources in Lebanon said five rockets were fired and two fell in Lebanon. Witnesses in south Lebanon said Israel responded with artillery fire. There were no immediate reports of casualties or further Israeli military action.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo at the start of a major diplomatic push to end the war in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been battling Hamas Islamists for 19 days in a bid to end their rocket fire on its towns.

Israeli troops edged closer to the heart of the city of Gaza on Wednesday morning and international organisations expressed growing concern about the plight of children trapped there.

The Palestinian death toll rose to 971, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, counting some 400 women and children among those killed. Israel says 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rockets fired across the border have been killed.

Sporadic explosions, machine gun fire and the wail of ambulances pierced the night after Israel’s senior general said more work lay ahead for his troops in their stated mission of stopping the Hamas rocket attacks.

Israeli aircraft attacked about 60 targets, including Hamas police headquarters in the city of Gaza, eight squads of gunmen, five rocket-launching sites and some 35 weapons smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, the military said.

Three rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel, causing no casualties, emergency services said.

RED CROSS APPEAL

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the densely populated Palestinian enclave on Tuesday and said what he saw was shocking.

“It is unacceptable to see so many wounded people. Their lives must be spared and the security of those who care for them guaranteed.“ ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said.

He urged both sides to spare civilians and let aid workers do their work.

The chief U.N. aid official for Gaza appealed to the international community to protect Gaza’s civilians, saying nowhere in the territory of 1.5 million people was safe any longer with the conflict becoming “a test of our humanity“.

Trying to end the bloodshed, Ban planned to meet leaders in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria. He has indicated he will have no direct contact with Hamas.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban also would “demand that urgent humanitarian assistance be provided without restriction to those in need“.

In Cairo, a Hamas delegation resumed talks on a ceasefire plan proposed by Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel and has made peace with the Jewish state.

Hamas says Israel must pull back all its troops under a ceasefire and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip that it tightened after the group seized the coastal enclave from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

Israel has rebuffed as “unworkable“ a U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution last week and said a truce must ensure Hamas cannot rearm through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

Israeli tanks have moved closer to the densely populated downtown area of the city of Gaza, but have not entered, residents said.

Human rights groups have reported shortages of vital supplies, including water, in the Gaza Strip. A fuel shortage has brought frequent power blackouts.

Israel has permitted almost daily truck shipments of food and medicine. But Human Rights Watch said Israel’s daily three hour break in attacks to facilitate the supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans was “woefully insufficient“.

Day 20: Israel struck by rockets fired from Lebanon – Nachrichten English-News – WELT ONLINE

“That is … a very alarming, very disturbing and troubling situation,” Ban told reporters in the Jordanian capital on the first day of a week-long tour of the Middle East.

Ban said that U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, were investigating the rocket attacks launched from inside Lebanon. The incident took place on the 19th day of Israel’s offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza strip.

“I again strongly urge all the parties concerned in this region … to refrain from taking such violent actions which will destabilize the situation,” Ban said.

“We are now going through a very difficult process to bring a ceasefire, to bring stability back to Gaza. Such actions are just unacceptable,” Ban said.

He added that he would discuss the latest Lebanese rocket salvoes — the second such attack from Lebanon in a week — with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Thursday and with Lebanese officials in Beirut later in the week.

Security sources in Lebanon said five rockets were fired, though two fell in Lebanon. Witnesses in southern Lebanon said Israel responded with artillery fire but there were no reports of casualties or further Israeli military action.

Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for last week’s rocket attacks against Israel.

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Earlier Ban discussed an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and later with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman. Ban said he would continue to renew his calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in meetings with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Thursday.

Ban did not comment on statements from a Hamas official working with Egyptian mediators in Cairo indicating that Hamas might be willing to accept some kind of a ceasefire.

The U.N. chief was asked if he was disappointed that both Israel and Hamas had ignored a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last week that called for an immediate end to the Israeli offensive and rocket attacks against southern Israel.

“It is more than disappointment,” Ban said, adding that he wanted an “an immediate and durable ceasefire.”

This, he said, was a message he would bring to Israel on Thursday when he meets with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

“Hamas rocket attacks must stop and at the same time I have been condemning the excessive military operation by the Israelis,” he told an earlier news conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said 1,010 Palestinians had been killed and 4,700 wounded by Israel so far. The Israelis say on their side 10 soldiers, and three civilians hit by cross-border Hamas rockets, have been killed.

Ban also called on “all those who have influence with any parties to this conflict” to use that influence to help put an end to the fighting — indicating an acknowledgement that his own ability to influence events was extremely limited.

The U.N. chief, whose tour will also take him to Israel and Syria, said he was unlikely to visit the Gaza Strip, partly because of the dangerous situation there.

U.N. alarmed by Lebanon rocket attacks on Israel | Reuters