The Israeli army resumed bombings in Gaza City on Wednesday after a three-hour lull, witnesses said. Earlier in the day, Israel postponed a decision on whether to order its armed forces to storm the Gaza Strip's urban centres, an Israeli official said, citing Egyptian- and French-led efforts to secure a truce with Hamas. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said Israel and the Palestinian Authority have accepted a Franco-Egyptian plan for a ceasefire in Gaza. The plan was presented Tuesday evening by President Hosni Mubarak, Sarkozy's office said. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has agreed to study the plan, which would see a renewal of a failed truce between Israel and Palestinian factions and a reinforcement of controls on arms smuggling from Egypt. An Israeli government spokesman welcomed in principle the Franco-Egyptian initiative, but stopped short of saying whether it could be a basis for ending its assault on Gaza. Israel, however, agreed to set up a “humanitarian corridor” to allow aid to reach Gaza's beleaguered civilian population, and has promised to halt air strikes for three hours per day to allow help to be distributed. In Washington, the White House signalled that it was open to the Franco-Egyptian plan but said it wanted more details. Moscow called for an immediate end to the bloodshed in Gaza saying, “It is necessary to stop the bloodshed without delay to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe, evacuate the wounded and let the civilans survive.” “We highly appreciate the actions of Egypt aimed at preventing the humanitarian catastrophe and renewing the inter-Palestinian dialogue,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko said. Along with the European Union, United Nations and United States, Russia is a member of the international quartet seeking peace in the Middle East. Israeli strikes killed 29 Palestinians on Wednesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll during 12 days of devastating Israeli air and ground assaults to 688 and driving home the difficult road ahead for those around the world seeking a diplomatic endgame for Israel's Gaza invasion. Despite the heavy fighting and the wide gulf between Israel and Hamas on the terms of any ceasefire, Wednesday's events appeared to put the truce option squarely on the global agenda, even though it would likely take days or weeks before details are worked out. Israel had called the initial ground sweep the “second stage” of an operation to counter cross-border Palestinian rocket salvoes. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet, convening on Wednesday, discussed the third – and final – stage of the offensive but deferred voting on the plan to an undisclosed date. “The plan is to enter the urban centres,” one official, who declined to be named, said before the deliberations. Asked about postponing a final decision on the plan, a senior Israeli defenSe official said: “We are pursuing parallel military and diplomatic tracks, so this is no simple matter.” Military analysts believe Israeli forces would be severely challenged by combat in Gaza's congested casbahs and alleyways, where much of their air support would be irrelevant and where Palestinian gunmen would be able to mount hit-and-run ambushes. Conquering Gaza could amount to a reoccupation of a territory the Jewish state captured from Egypt in a 1967 war and quit in 2005. Israeli leaders have said they do not want to reoccupy Gaza or, for now, to topple the Hamas rule.
