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Rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-08 16:32

Full Coverage: Gaza War Rages Video News: Israeli troops surround Gaza city Related readings: Gaza war rages despite truce offer Israel 'mulls truce offer' defers final thrust Israel continue Gaza offensive Chinese woman caught in war zone

Tuesday's killing by Israeli shells of 42 people, including women and children sheltering in a UN-run school in Jabalya refugee camp, intensified international pressure on Israel to call a halt. UN officials denied an Israeli army account that militants had been firing from the school.

Israel has said it will press on until Hamas can no longer hit its southern towns with rockets.

Israeli leaders face a parliamentary election in a month and will want to show the public that they have met that objective.

However, US involvement of the kind that helped end the Lebanon war and which was perceived as absent in the first week of the Gaza fighting may indicate that, whatever the state of combat on the ground, a ceasefire could be on the cards.

Some Israeli analysts say Israel faces a deadline to wrap up its campaign by the time Obama is sworn in, or risk a strain in ties with Washington at the outset of the new administration.

European governments have proposed backing the Egyptian ceasefire proposal with an EU force along the Gaza-Egypt border that would prevent Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, from rearming through its many tunnels.

Hamas called off a six-month ceasefire late last month, accusing Israel of breaking an agreement to ease supplies.

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