GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel said it was approaching the “endgame” of its three-week offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers and scheduled a Security Cabinet vote Saturday on a truce proposed by Egypt. Under the cease-fire plan, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days, but Israeli forces would initially remain in Gaza and the border crossings into the territory would remain closed until security arrangements are made to ensure Hamas militants do not rearm.
If Israel agrees to stop shooting, Israel radio said a truce summit would be held in Cairo …

ANKARA, Turkey – Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it ignores the organization’s calls to stop fighting in Gaza, Turkey’s prime minister said Friday, urging the world not to turn a blind eye to Israel’s “savagery.”
“How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the U.N.?” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan spoke before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Ankara. Erdogan’s comments reflected growing anger in Turkey, Israel’s best friend in the …

The war against Hamas is taking place not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank as well, Palestinians said on Thursday.
Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces, they noted, had stepped up their crackdown on Hamas supporters and figures in the West Bank since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.
The latest anti-Hamas measures in the West Bank, which are being carried out in coordination with the IDF and under the supervision of US security experts, are designed to foil any attempt by the movement to overthrow the PA.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A top Israeli envoy delivered his country’s stance on a cease-fire agreement in Gaza to Egyptian mediators trying to seal a truce on Thursday. The Iranian president said the fighting showed Israel’s continued existence in the region is “not feasible.”
The development came as the U.N. secretary-general pressed Israel and Gulf leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict.
The diplomatic push gained momentum despite competing agendas among Arab and Islamic governments, which are openly disagreeing about how to resolve — or even discuss — the conflict …

Six seriously injured Palestinian children have been flown to Belgium from the war-torn Gaza Strip for treatment in Brussels hospitals.
The children were airlifted on a Belgian military plane, which brought them from El-Arish, an Egyptian town about 60km (37 miles) from Gaza.
Belgian media say the children’s ages range from two and a half to 18 years.

One of the top Hamas leaders in Gaza has been killed in an air strike, Hamas and Israeli officials have said.
Said Siyam, the Hamas interior minister, was killed in an air raid on his brother’s home near Gaza City.
Earlier, Israeli troops and tanks moved closer into the heart of Gaza City, prompting fierce gun battles with fighters from Hamas.
The UN’s relief agency, Unrwa, said part of its HQ in Gaza caught fire after being hit by Israeli shells.

Rockets fired from Lebanon struck Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week while its Gaza offensive ground on, but there was no immediate sign the incident would escalate into wider violence. There was no initial claim of responsibility for the attack, which triggered warning sirens in parts of northern Israel, and police said no one was hurt.
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, …

GAZA: Israeli forces shelled areas deep inside Gaza City on Thursday, hitting the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and wounding at least three people among the hundreds taking shelter in the compound, UN officials and witnesses said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel expressed regret for the strike but said that Israeli forces were fired on by Hamas militants from just outside the UN compound and that the militants then ran inside to take cover, according to Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki …

AMMAN (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm on Wednesday over reports of Lebanese rocket attacks against Israel and urged all parties in the region to avoid actions that could make a bad situation worse.
“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 …

Hamas officials say they have given Egyptian mediators their views on a Gaza cease-fire plan with Israel, and are waiting for Israel’s response.
Palestinian medics Wednesday said more than 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the 19-day conflict.
The head of the U.N.’s children’s agency, UNICEF, says 300 children are among the dead.
Thirteen Israelis have died in the conflict, which Israel launched to stop Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel.