Hamas Leader: Israel's Gaza Attacks Have Killed Peace Talks

The leader of Hamas warned that Israel's offensive in Gaza had ended any chance for broader peace negotiations with the Palestinians as the Israeli military pressed on with its attacks today.

Israeli aerial bombardments, artillery strikes and ground fighting deep inside Gaza continued into a 16th day of attacks after the military dropped leaflets yesterday warning Gazans of an imminent escalation in the war.

A dozen Palestinians, apparently including several gunmen, were killed today in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood on the edge of Gaza City. Five others, including four women, were killed by tank shelling in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

Khaled Meshal, head of the Hamas political bureau, who lives in exile in Damascus, called for a Palestinian uprising and told Arab neighbors to break relations with Israel.

Addressing Israel, Meshal said: "You have destroyed the last chance for negotiations. No one will now believe you. Our people are fed up with compromises after they had tried them for so long. A bitter taste is all that's left."

Meshal said Israel's attack had not achieved its military goals despite overwhelming firepower and said rockets were still being fired from Gaza into southern Israel. Early today several rockets hit near the Israeli town of Be'er Sheva, although there were no injuries.

"You have created resistance in every household and every town," Meshal said in a late-night speech, broadcast on several Arabic television channels. "We are living the most difficult days of the battle. What is needed is fierce resistance on the ground of Gaza and fierce support from the Arab, Islamic and international street until the aggression ends and the enemy withdraws."

He said Hamas wanted a halt to the Israeli offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reopening of crossings into Gaza from Israel and Egypt, which have remain closed for several months to all but a limited supply of aid. He would not accept an international monitoring force in Gaza, which he said would be regarded as an "occupation".

Meshal said Hamas should be included with the Egyptians and Europeans in any agreement to monitor the border crossing at Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt. His comments came as a Hamas delegation was in Cairo for talks on ending the conflict.

The Palestinian death toll rose to at least 846 dead, with more than 3,200 injured. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, have been killed.

Some key Israeli generals are pressing for more intensive fighting, among them the head of the military's southern command, Major-General Yoav Galant, who is a leading figure in this conflict. He said an escalation was a "once in a generation" opportunity to strike at Hamas. "If we don't do that we'll be missing an historic opportunity," he was quoted as saying in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

The Israeli military said it hit 60 targets overnight, including groups of armed men, a mosque in Rafah which it said was housing weapons, tunnels under the Egyptian border and the apparently empty house of Ahmad al-Jabari, head of the Hamas armed wing. Yesterday, the military said it had killed Amir Mansi, who it said was head of rocket launching in Gaza City for Hamas.

International criticism of Israel's conduct of the war grew, with Human Rights Watch saying it believed Israeli troops were using white phosphorous munitions over densely populated areas of Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law. It said on Friday and yesterday its researchers in Israel had seen "multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorous" over Gaza City and Jabalia. The weapon is permissible in some circumstances as a smokescreen but it can burn people and buildings. Each artillery round spread 116 burning wafers over an area of up to 250m in diameter, Human Rights Watch said.

The Israeli military has refused to detail which weapons are being used in the Gaza war, but says all its weapons are used within international rules. On Wednesday last week, a military spokesman denied white phosphorous was being used.

Israel's security cabinet was meeting today to discuss whether to step up the fight by ordering troops into the heart of Gaza's towns and cities or whether to consider the ceasefire proposals that are still being discussed. The military dropped leaflets on Gaza on Saturday warning it would "soon escalate its operations" and ordered residents to keep away from "terrorists, weapons warehouses and the places were the terrorists operate".

Despite a UN security council resolution last week calling for an immediate ceasefire, the diplomacy to end the war has moved only haltingly.

A senior Israeli official ruled out the presence of an international monitoring force to stop weapons smuggling to Hamas through the Egyptian border. Amos Gilad, the top defence ministry official who has been in Cairo for talks, said Egypt should have the responsibility to stop smuggling. He told Israel Radio an international force would be "devoid of intelligence, devoid of an ability to penetrate those doing all of this smuggling, devoid of an operational capability".

"There's no doubt Egypt has a superb military and security forces which can tackle all the undesirable phenomena from a security standpoint. No one can compete with this," he said. Gilad was due back in Cairo for more talks on Monday.