"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Rejecting truce, Olmert vows 'iron fist' against Hamas

ASHKELON, Israel - Israeli soldiers were poised Thursday to launch a Gaza Strip ground offensive as their political leadership appeared divided over how to bring the devastating six-day-old military campaign against Hamas to an end. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to use an "iron fist" to pummel Hamas militants and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni politely rebuffed French efforts to broker a truce that might make a ground offensive unnecessary.While the tentative diplomatic initiative stalled, Israel targeted a top Hamas military mastermind with an air strike that killed the hard-line leader and 13 members of his family. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes that are taking an increasing toll on civilians. According to the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza, the latest Israeli attacks have killed 11 children and six women since Wednesday.In all, United Nations workers and Palestinian human rights groups estimate, more than 100 Palestinian civilians - one quarter of all the deaths - have been killed by Israeli strikes thus far.As rockets fired by Gaza Strip militants sent people nearby scrambling for cover in the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon, the country's deputy prime minister said the fighting had reached "the end of the beginning" and endorsed the idea of sending international forces into oversee any truce with Hamas."We have to find a way that this war will end while Hamas is not exclusively controlling the area," said Vice Premier Haim Ramon, who is among a minority of Israeli cabinet ministers to call for the military operation to bring Hamas rule of Gaza to an end. Harkening back to a United Nations deal that brought Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon to an end, Ramon suggested that international peacekeepers be sent into Gaza to oversee any future truce with Hamas.But Olmert aides dismissed the idea and said it was too early to consider how the fighting might end."It's all very fluid," said Olmert spokesman Mark Regev. "We're not there yet."On a visit Thursday to a southern Israeli city recently hit by more-advanced Palestinian rockets, Olmert said the military was doing all it could to avoid civilian casualties."We will treat the population with silk gloves, but will apply an iron fist to Hamas," said Olmert...
Special correspondent Ahmed Abu Hamda contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
By Dion Nissenbaum McClatchy Newspapers
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