Gaza Airstrikes: Israeli Truce As Egypt PM Visits

Israel's prime minister has called a halt to airstrikes on the Gaza Strip as Egypt's prime minister visits the territory.

However, the temporary truce comes after the Palestinian territory suffered a second night of heavy bombardment, with Israeli warplanes hitting targets in and around Gaza City.

"There have been 130 strikes overnight until now," Hamas interior ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan said.

He said the strikes destroyed a building belonging to the interior ministry, while there were also reports that training positions used by various Palestinian militant groups had also been hit.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said 11 Palestinian rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel overnight.

Gazans also continued to be concerned that a ground assault remains a possibility as troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers massed near Israel's southern border with the Palestinian territory.

An interior ministry building in Gaza City comes under fire from Israel

It has given the green light to the call-up of up to 30,000 army reservists - another strong indication that Israeli troops are preparing to enter the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil is leading a delegation to Gaza to explore the possibility of brokering a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said all offensive actions would be called off during the visit, as long as Palestinian groups refrain from firing rockets across the border.

A senior Israeli official said: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to an Egyptian request to cease all offensive operations in Gaza during the visit of the Egyptian prime minister there this morning, which is supposed to last for about three hours.

"In the answer that has been forwarded to Egyptians, we've said that the Israel Defense Forces will cease fire on the condition that there won't be fire from Gaza into Israel during that period."

An Israeli armoured vehicle moves towards the border with the Gaza Strip

Two days of Israeli air strikes have killed 19 Palestinians, including seven militants and 12 civilians - among them six children and a pregnant woman. A Palestinian rocket killed three Israelis in the town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday.

Two more rockets from Gaza landed near Tel Aviv in the first such attack on Israel's commercial capital in 20 years. One fell into the Mediterranean Sea and the other in an uninhabited part of one of the suburbs south of the city.

Prime Minister David Cameron has blamed Hamas militants for the escalation of violence in a phone call to Mr Netanyahu.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister said that he was extremely concerned by the dangerous situation and deeply sorry for the loss of civilian life on both sides.

"He said the rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups were completely unacceptable and that the increasing frequency of rocket attacks in recent days was the immediate cause of the situation.

"He made clear that Hamas bears the principal responsibility for crisis.

Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Kandil

"The Prime Minister said that the priority must be to de-escalate the crisis. He called on Mr Netanyahu to do all he could to avoid civilian casualties and emphasised that both sides needed to avoid a spiral of violence that would be in no-one's interest, particularly at a time of instability in the region."

Israel's "Pillar of Defense'' operation, which it said was in response to an escalating barrage of rocket fire from Gaza, began with the targeted assassination of Hamas' top military commander Ahmed al Jaabar on Wednesday.

The resurgent conflict has confronted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi with the biggest test yet of his commitments - to his fellow Islamists and to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

He is also under pressure to show Egyptians that his policies differ from those of his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, who came under fire from the Muslim Brotherhood, which brought Mr Morsi to power.

Mr Morsi has rejected what he has called Israel's aggression in Gaza, saying that it threatens to destabalise the nation.

As his PM planned his trip to Gaza, Czech President Vaclav Klaus called off a visit to Israel at the weekend.

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