Israeli leaders to debate "final" Gaza push

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By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Israeli leaders will debate on Wednesday whether to order their armed forces to storm into the Gaza Strip's urban centres, the planned culmination of a nearly two-week-old offensive, political sources said.

Escalating from a week-long air assault, Israeli troops and tanks invaded the Hamas-ruled territory on Saturday, clashing with Palestinian guerrillas but not advancing beyond the outskirts of the city of Gaza or other densely populated areas.

Israel called the initial ground sweep the "second stage" of the operation, without saying what could follow. The opacity helped spur a frenzy of international mediation to secure a truce under which Hamas would stop cross-border rocket fire.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet, due to convene on Wednesday, would discuss the third -- and final -- stage of the offensive, two senior political sources said, though the ministers may defer a vote on approving the plan.

"The plan is to enter the urban centres," said one source, declining to be named.

Postponing a final decision on the plan could allow Israel to keep its forces in readiness while maintaining leeway for any breakthrough in possible truce talks led by Egypt.

Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment on Wednesday's meeting, saying: "We do not generally discuss the agendas of the security cabinet."



CHALLENGE

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 Islamist Hamas group.

Seven Israeli soldiers have died in an offensive that has killed more than 640 Palestinians, at least a quarter of them civilians, medics said. Palestinian rockets, the stated reason for Israel's assault, have killed four Israeli civilians.

Israel said its troops had killed 130 guerrillas since Saturday, a figure that suggested the total Palestinian death toll since Dec. 27 might be close to 770 and that bodies could still be on the battlefield.

According to one Israeli source with knowledge of the security cabinet's discussions, the initial ground sweep was executed well but the military top brass was disappointed by what they saw as relatively little Palestinian resistance.

"The assumption was that our forces could draw out the enemy into open areas where they could be eliminated, but they didn't come out in the number we expected," the source said. "Taking the fight into the populated areas would be much tougher."

Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a speech on Monday: "We have prepared for you, Zionists, thousands of tough fighters who are waiting for you in every street, every alley and at every house, and they will meet you with iron and fire."