http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/middleeast/22mideast.html

August 21, 2011

Efforts Seek to Restore Calm Between Israel and Hamas

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM  -- A fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, appeared to be taking hold on Monday after days of intense rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave, actions that have taken casualties on both sides.

A trickle of rockets and mortar shells were fired Monday morning from Gaza at southern Israel, but with much less intensity than in previous days, while there have been no Israeli raids on Gaza since midnight Sunday.

Egypt and the United Nations were working Sunday to restore the informal cease-fire, according to officials on all sides.

The Egyptian involvement came in the wake of a diplomatic embroilment with Israel over the deaths of three Egyptian soldiers on Thursday. Israeli forces pursuing assailants who carried out a deadly terrorist attack near the Egyptian border fired into Egypt, killing the soldiers, according to Egyptian officials, and setting off an eruption of Egyptian anger against Israel.

A retaliatory Israeli airstrike in Gaza, aimed at the militant group that Israel said carried out the attack, produced a wave of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel.

An Israeli official said Sunday that Israel and Egypt, each for their own reasons, had an interest in restoring the calm.

"We want to contain this crisis and lead it to a quick finish," said the Israeli official, who insisted on anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy involved.

Ismail al-Ashqar, a Hamas official based in Gaza, said the discussions were still under way on Sunday night but that the Hamas authorities had already reached understandings with smaller militant groups in Gaza and had deployed forces to try to stop them from firing rockets into southern Israel.

Robert H. Serry, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, issued a statement saying the United Nations was "actively engaged and supporting Egypt's important efforts" in trying to return to full calm. Mr. Serry was in Cairo on Sunday.

Israel was also trying to turn down the temperature with Gaza.

A rocket fired by militants from Gaza crashed into a school in this southern Israeli city on Sunday morning. The school was empty because a summer activity had been canceled after a deadly rocket strike a few blocks away the night before.

In a response that many here considered minimal, Israel carried out airstrikes on two vacant militant training sites in Gaza, shattering windows and wounding seven Palestinians in a house nearby.

"The military has been instructed to hit the terrorist groups in a surgical manner and to avoid as much as possible hurting the civilian population of Gaza," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister.

Scores of rockets have struck in and around southern Israeli cities since late Thursday, when Israel bombed a house in Rafah, Gaza, killing several top commanders of the Popular Resistance Committees. Israel holds the group responsible for the attacks on Thursday, which killed eight Israelis near Eilat.

It was the fiercest rocket fire since Israel's devastating three-week offensive in Gaza that ended in early 2009.

Israel's airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza over the past four days killed 14 people, including four civilians. A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees insisted on Sunday night that his group would not abide by any cease-fire.

Even as Israeli officials sought to tamp down the crisis with Egypt, issuing statements of regret for the deaths of the Egyptian soldiers after Egypt demanded an apology, there was anger among the Israeli public.

In Beersheba, blood still stained the sidewalk on the block where the rocket struck on Saturday night. Several people were caught in the street running for cover. One man was killed and a woman was critically wounded.

"Israel should get rid of the Hamas leaders in one blow," said Shai Damri, 33, whose house was damaged by the rocket. "Then we can talk about a cease-fire."

He said he was convinced that the lack of a stronger Israeli response was merely "the quiet before the storm."

Mr. Damri, a driving teacher and bus driver, was particularly enraged by the Egyptian demand of an apology from Israel.

"Let us not forget that the terrorist attack came from Egyptian territory," he said.

Mr. Damri added, "So first let them apologize, and if not, let them sit aside and keep quiet."

Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza City.