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Occupied Jerusalem: Israel said on Wednesday it would support efforts by Egypt to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip but instructed the army to prepare for possible military action in the Hamas-controlled territory if mediation failed.
The decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet to hold off militarily for now followed Hamas's release this week of a hand-written letter by Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza fighters two years ago.
Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including a nine-year-old girl, in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian medical workers said.
The medical workers said the girl's remains were recovered from a house in the village of Qarara that was struck by tank fire.
During the Israeli operation, soldiers shot and killed a Hamas gunman and a civilian, the medical workers and Hamas officials said. Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an Israeli air strike.
Israel has been pressing for progress on the Shalit case and an end to Hamas weapons smuggling as conditions for a truce that would aim to stop Gaza rocket attacks and Israeli incursions.
Hamas, which has demanded Israel ease its Gaza blockade in return for calm, said the Security Cabinet decision was "not serious" because of Israel's threat of a large-scale operation if its conditions were not met and truce talks collapsed.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has backed the Egyptian mediation effort, plans to return to the region this weekend to try to spur peace talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Contradictions
"The Security Cabinet decided [yesterday] morning to support Egyptian efforts to achieve calm in the south and to end the daily targeting of Israeli civilians by the terrorists in Gaza," said Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev.
"In parallel, the Security Cabinet has instructed the military to continue its preparations in the unfortunate event that the Egyptian track should prove unsuccessful," he added, alluding to a possible broad military operation in Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was prepared for either outcome - full calm or a confrontation.
"They are preparing for a large-scale attack on Gaza and that makes any talk about giving calm a chance unserious and unreal," he said.
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