Gaza militants' rocket kills Israeli woman
Attack burdens talks intended to gain truce
JERUSALEM - A rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman yesterday, just as an Egyptian mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel - underlining both the urgency and complexity of working out a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The rocket hit a house in the village of Yesha, about 4 miles from the Gaza Strip. As recently as Friday, a fatal rocket attack drew reprisal Israeli ai rstrikes that killed five Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev denounced the latest attack but did not say it would halt the Gaza truce talks. "The rocket fire into Israel will end. It will end either because calm will be achieved, or Israel will act to protect its people," he said.
The talks by mediator Omar Suleiman, Egypt's powerful intelligence chief, produced no tangible results yesterday, even before the deadly rocket strike. He came to discuss Egypt's months of talks with the Hamas movement and many smaller militant groups in the coastal territory.
The outline of the envisioned cease-fire would be a six-month truce, stopping near daily Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks and Israel's military reprisals. Also, Israel would ease the punishing economic blockade it imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in violence last June.
Israeli officials did not reject the elements of the package. But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted on freedom for Corporal Gilad Schalit, a soldier captured in a cross-border raid two years ago, and others demanded an end to smuggling arms into Gaza through underground tunnels from Egypt.
Suleiman did not endorse Olmert's demand, saying only that "indirect negotiations" between Israel and Schalit's captors would continue.
The disagreements illustrated the difficulty Suleiman faces in forging a truce. Israel refuses to talk with Hamas, an extremist Islamic group that does not accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Israel, the United States, and European Union label it a terrorist group.
Mediators have to navigate among a dozen squabbling militant groups in Gaza, reach a tentative agreement, and only then bring Israel in.
While Olmert made freedom for the soldier a condition, other Israeli officials appeared to leave some room for maneuver. Interviewed on Army Radio, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai was asked directly if a Gaza truce depending on Schalit's release.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak released an ambiguous statement saying that both "the release of Gilad Schalit and immediate progress in negotiations toward his release" were key elements in the formula.
The discrepancies reflect the criticism Israel's government faces because of its inability to stop the rocket barrages from Gaza.
Israelis living near Gaza are clamoring for a halt to the attacks, but weighing against a truce are Israeli fears that Hamas would use a lull to rearm, strengthen its rule and prepare for another round of fighting. Hamas officials acknowledge that is one of their goals.
