Hamas demands end to raids as Israel strikes Gaza

GAZA - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh today demanded Israel halt a Gaza offensive if it wanted to free a captured soldier and said the Hamas-led government would not give way to force.

Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza, setting ablaze the Interior Ministry offices, on the third day of a military operation aimed at bringing home the army corporal who was seized in a cross-border raid on Sunday.

The crisis has sent Israeli-Palestinian relations to new lows and piled more pressure on the Hamas Islamist government, straining under a United States-led aid embargo to get it to renounce violence and drop its vow to destroy Israel.

Haniyeh, addressing the public for the first time since the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, said at Muslim prayers in a Gaza mosque that Hamas would not be pressured by raids or the detention or killing of its leaders.

"The aggression must stop in order not to make the situation more complicated," he said, while adding that he was working with Egyptian mediators and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end the hostage crisis.

Hamas ministers have been keeping under cover after Israeli threats of assassination. Hamas' armed wing was among the groups that grabbed Shalit, although the government said it had no foreknowledge of the raid.

Voicing hope for mediation, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a newspaper interview Hamas had given "conditional approval" for Shalit's release, without saying what the conditions were.

Israel has already rejected a demand by militants to free Palestinian prisoners for information on Shalit's fate.

His captors have not said whether he is alive or dead.

"Make no mistake, we are not going to negotiate on the release of our soldier," said cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit.

But Israel held back on an assault into northern Gaza, partly under diplomatic pressure to allow for further mediation. The White House said it saw reason for hope.

"We are encouraged by the fact that the Israelis are standing down in Gaza and that Hamas is talking openly about repatriating the soldier," spokesman Tony Snow said.

Overnight, Israeli planes struck over 20 targets in the Gaza Strip. They included the office of the Hamas interior minister, a building used by Al-Aqsa Brigades militants, part of Abbas' Fatah movement, roads and zones used for firing rockets.

An Islamic Jihad militant was killed in what the army said was a strike on a rocket squad. One militant was hurt in a later attack. Troops killed two gunmen in a clash that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank.

A day after seizing dozens of Hamas cabinet members and officials in the West Bank, Israel revoked the Jerusalem residency of four lawmakers linked to the group. The Interior Ministry said that was not connected to the offensive.

Israel is under international pressure to avoid the civilian casualties that could result from an offensive into densely populated Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

In New York, the UN Security Council set a public meeting for 3pm on Friday (7am Saturday NZT) to discuss the Israeli military operation in Gaza, at the request of Arab states. But diplomats said the council, where Israel's closest ally, the United States, has veto power, was unlikely to adopt any measure at this time.

The International Committee of the Red Cross called for Israel to allow urgent medical supplies into Gaza. The Israeli army said it hoped to open the Karni Crossing next week to allow fuel and other supplies into Gaza.

- REUTERS