JERUSALEM—A cease-fire in Gaza is close at hand, according to a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a senior Israeli official. They said, separately, that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza could agree to halt fighting within the next few days for 24-72 hours.
Hamas officials denied the report but both Israeli and PA officials said an agreement on a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Egypt was definitely in the offing after three weeks of combat that saw much of Gaza reduced to rubble, some 1,200 civilians and combatants killed, and 300,000 residents displaced.
Officials in Jerusalem said that before the cease-fire goes into effect, Israel was poised to send its troops deeper into Gaza in order to improve its bargaining position when substantive talks begin.
According to Israeli Channel Two TV, Secretary of State John Kerry has assured Hamas via President Abbas that the United States would support ending the quasi-siege of the Gaza Strip as part of a cease-fire package.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions are to arrive in Cairo in the coming days to discuss with Egypt the Egyptian cease-fire proposal which Hamas had rejected two weeks ago and which Israel accepted. Israeli negotiators will participate in indirect talks with the Palestinians, with Egyptian mediators shuttling between them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces stiff opposition within his security cabinet from hawks opposing a cease-fire and advocating renewing the ground offensive in order to cripple Hamas.
"Our object is not the tunnels," said right-wing minister Naftali Bennett, referring to Hamas' cross-border attack tunnels. "The object must be a clear victory over Hamas if we don’t want to see another war in a year or two." Netanyahu is believed to have the votes to push through the cabinet’s agreement to the cease-fire.
From the beginning of Israel’s ground incursion two weeks ago, Netanyahu favored a limited campaign aimed at destroying the attack tunnels. The hawks warned that if Hamas is not crippled, its rocket system destroyed, and its leaders disabled, another war would erupt in a year or two. However, Netanyahu feared that if there was a push into the heart of Gaza City, which is heavily booby trapped and mined, the price in lives would be too high. He hopes instead to limit Hamas’ military potential through the upcoming negotiations in Cairo.
In any agreement on a long-term cease-fire, Hamas will doubtless win heavy international investment in rebuilding Gaza’s badly damaged infrastructure and an easing of restrictions at its border crossing points with Israel and Egypt.
Ten Israeli soldiers were killed Monday, five of them by a Hamas squad that emerged from a tunnel that had not yet been destroyed. On Monday night, Israeli artillery unleashed the heaviest barrage on Gaza since the current operation began. Palestinian residents of five neighborhoods in the northern part of Gaza were warned by Israel today to evacuate their homes for their own safety—a signal that a heavy barrage could be expected in order to open the way for a ground attack. More than 200,000 residents of other neighborhoods have already left their homes after similar warnings.
Israeli planes destroyed Gaza’s main power plant today, sending huge clouds of black smoke from fuel into the air. Only 10 percent of the strip still has electricity.