Israel decides against Gaza Strip invasion
Girl, 6, killed in Israeli tank attack: Gaza medical officials

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 | 12:50 PM ET

Israeli leaders decided on Wednesday not to launch a broad invasion of the Gaza Strip to give truce talks a chance with its militant Hamas rulers.

(Let's hope this holds true, since Israel has been preparing to attack Gaza for at least a year now, and this crisis was engineered in order to enable them to pursue these plans, without appearing the aggressor.)

The announcement came a short time after news emerged that a six-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in a tank fire attack in the southern part of the strip, according to Palestinian doctors and relatives.

Palestinian medical officials said Israeli shells aimed at a group of militants in the strip hit a nearby house, decapitating the girl in her backyard.

The Israeli military said troops opened fire at militants preparing to launch rockets into Israel, successfully hitting a rocket squad, but said they were unaware of any Palestinian casualties.

The dead girl was identified by Gaza health officials as Hadeel al-Smari. Two adult relatives living in her family's compound near the Israeli border were also wounded in the attack.

Hamas rulers also reported that one of their gunmen was killed in the ongoing Israeli operation in the area.

Doubts a truce can be reached

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet met Wednesday to talk about whether to invade Gaza or pursue Egypt-mediated talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said the Israeli military will continue its preparations in case the truce talks fail.

(The only real way they can 'fail' is if one side rejects the offer.)

The two sides formally renewed talks late last year at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Md., where they set aside a year-end target for a final accord.

(This was all for show, however, as these talks took place under a backdrop of Israeli-US covert actions intended to overthrow the democratically-elected Government, Collective Punishment provoked a violent response, Israeli attacks against Palestinians increased dramatically, Israel deliberately destroyed Gaza's food production, and Israel ignored its promises to the contrary, and continued with its illegal construction in the West Bank.)

Issues such as Israeli concerns over Palestinian attacks and continued construction on land Palestinians claim for a future state have upset talks.

In a newspaper interview published Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad added his voice to a growing chorus of doubt about whether a truce is possible this year.

He said he is "absolutely certain" a peace deal can't be reached by the end of the year.

'No one can sleep day or night'

A relative of the Palestian girl killed Wednesday told the Associated Press that she was in the backyard of her family's house when a shell struck.

"I am sure that she was up because no one can sleep day or night because of the army fire and clashes near our homes," Hadeel's cousin, Ahmad al-Smari, said in a telephone interview from the hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Israeli military officials say Palestinian militants endanger civilians by using residential areas as cover from which to launch their attacks.

Also Wednesday, an Israeli was lightly wounded when a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit a paint factory at Nir Oz, an Israeli collective village near the Gaza border, the military said. An Israeli man was killed in a mortar attack there last week (and several Palestinians, including several small children, were also killed by Israeli soldiers).

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