Truce talks on hold as Israel seeks to crush Hamas rockets
Israel is hoping to cause long-term damage to Hamas's military infrastructure before agreeing to ceasefire talks, officials say, as the deadly confrontation entered its seventh day yesterday.
But it appeared to be in no hurry launch a threatened ground operation as the air force continued to pound Gaza, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 177, and as militants fired barrages of rockets at central Israel, sending thousands running for cover in the country's major cities.
"The Israeli government at this stage is not answering ceasefire efforts because we want to know first that we have taken away Hamas's desire to do this again in another year or six months," Finance Minister Yair Lapid told army radio on Sunday.
"That's not happened yet. When it does, then we'll talk."
So far, the Israeli military campaign has been almost entirely from the air.
"The IDF (military) has hit Gaza very hard, but has not hit Hamas's armed wing hard enough," former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin told army radio, saying that so far, only around 50 of the victims were believed to belong to the Islamist movement.
"Things are moving to another stage in which it will try to exact a very high price from Hamas's armed wing and strengthen both our position in the ceasefire negotiations and our deterrence, as well as hitting Hamas's ability to become stronger after the operation."
Despite the pressure, Hamas has also shown little appetite for a truce, insisting Israel end its "aggression" against Gaza, lift its eight-year blockade and release hundreds of its people jailed in an ongoing crackdown in the West Bank.
According to a senior military official, the army is operating according to a so-called "pain map" drawn up after the last major confrontation with Hamas militants in November 2012, that sets out targets most valuable to the Islamist movement.
"This will impair its abilities and force it into a difficult process, as long as possible, of post-war rehabilitation," he told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The harder we hit them, the longer and more difficult the (rehabilitation) process, and more effective the deterrence."
Although Israel has massed tanks and troops along the border, confirming its readiness for a ground assault, ministers at a late-night cabinet meeting decided against putting boots on the ground - at least for now, media reports said.
"A good outcome would be damaging the Hamas infrastructure and its ability to produce rockets," the military source said.
Following days of intensive air strikes, Israel had managed to hit Hamas sufficiently hard that any ceasefire agreement reached now would likely halt rocket fire for a "very long time," Yadlin said, suggesting Israel had a longer-term goal in mind.
"If the aim is to achieve 'quiet for quiet' and to strengthen deterrence, I think those aims have been reached," he said.
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