Israel, Hamas weigh cease-fire proposal

Fighting in Gaza resumes after pause for humanitarian aid

Discussion on how to end the operation gained momentum after two events Tuesday: a proposal by France and Egypt for a cease-fire and the Israeli shelling of a United Nations-run school in Gaza killed 40 civilians, raising international pressure on Israel to withdraw.

"Israel has reached an undesirable point," Giora Eiland, a retired brigadier general who once led Israel's National Security Council, told Israel radio. "We have become the isolated party." Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, only to come under frequent rocket attack from Hamas militants there. The Islamic group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized control of Gaza from the rival Fatah group in June 2007.

In response, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza with Egypt's backing, but that failed to stop the rockets. A truce brokered by Egypt in June broke down in November, and Hamas let it lapse Dec. 19.

Israel's airstrikes began eight days later, followed by a ground offensive that has cut Gaza in two and set off fighting at the edges of its densely populated cities and refugee camps.

Israeli analysts close to the military said it believed the ground sweep had been well-executed but had elicited far less resistance than expected from Hamas' 15,000-man paramilitary force in open areas outside the cities, apparently leaving much of it intact.

Although the goal of crippling Hamas' ability to fire rockets had not yet been achieved, the analysts said, the Israeli military is not eager to take the offensive inside the cities, where Hamas militants await in a warren of booby-trapped hide-outs and tunnels.