Israeli Source: Egypt Presents Ceasefire Draft

Here is REKA in its own words.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit of Egypt has presented Turkish leaders with a draft for a Gaza ceasefire. The proposal includes a halt to IAF strikes in exchange for a agreement from Hamas to stop the rocket attacks on Israel. With the resumption of the ceasefire, the border crossings will reopen under international guarantees to keep them that way.

Turkey is set to contact Hamas in Gaza and Damascus regarding the draft for a ceasefire.

A Hamas source in Gaza confirmed that the movement has been contacted regarding a ceasefire. He said the Hamas leadership will weigh the proposal. He told Kol Yisrael that the leadership is still in touch despite communication difficulties in wake of the Israeli air strikes.

Meanwhile, the Al Hayat newspaper reports that Turkey and Egypt are both warnng Israel if a land offensive opens in Gaza, a second front may open from Lebanon in the north. The Al Watan newspaper reported that Hezbollah raised its level of alert and put its forces on standby, similar to the situation leading up to the Second Lebanon War.

In the meanwhile Israel allows aid to Gaza as air strikes & rocket attacks continue.

Five more rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday afternoon with one person lightly hurt from fragments.

Israel allowed late Tuesday morning, a hundred trucks carrying humanitarian aid that includes basic foodstuffs and five ambulances and medical equipment through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. The aid was donated by Jordan, Turkey and international organizations. This was an exception to the otherwise closure order on the border crossing issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Palestinians reported that the IAF arttacked around 11 o'clock Tuesday morning, two targets in Gaza City and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. They report two sisters, aged four and 11 , were killed in Bet Hanun and another person was wounded when an IAF strike hit a donkey-drawn wagon carrying a number of people. Before that, air force jets struck twice at military facililties in the Al Bureij area in the central strip and in Khan Yunis in the south.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with President Shimon Peres to update him on the military operation. Olmert is said to have told Peres that the operation is now in its first stage, among a number of stages, that were approved by the security cabinet.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai says Hamas can be expected to expand its range of rocket attacks, but that Israel is ready for the possibility. Interviewed on Kol Yisrael, Vilnai said Hamas had hundreds of more rockets, but that the terror organization's strength is on the decline.

The deputy defense minister vowed that Israel would wage this operation to the end and is ready for many long weeks of fighting.

Reprinted from REKA Israel