The Israeli military said it hit 60 Hamas targets in the latest push on the 18th day of its offensive in Gaza. It said it killed about 30 militants during the last 24 hours of fighting.
Palestinian rocket fire has waned since the conflict's start – 15 rockets were fired at Israel today, resulting in no injuries.
The fighting continues to cause tension throughout the region and Israeli authorities reported today that a Jordanian soldier opened fire on an Israeli border patrol near the Arava Crossing, just north of the Red Sea port of Eilat. The Jordanians deny the reports.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left late today on a previously unannounced trip to Riyadh to meet with ally Saudi King Abdullah to brief him on the efforts to persuade Hamas to accept an immediate cease-fire, Egyptian officials said.
Suleiman accompanied Mubarak on the trip, leaving his aides to hold additional talks with Hamas this evening, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
In Damascus, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister's top foreign policy adviser, met for the third time in two days with Hamas' exiled political leader Khaled Mashaal about truce proposals.
But, so far, the push has yielded little public progress. A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the previous round of Egypt-Hamas talks Sunday was "stormy."
In Israel, political and military leaders continued to take an aggressive line. Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited an Israeli air base today to congratulate Israeli pilots. He said Israel was fully engaged in the diplomatic track but would continue to prosecute the war against Hamas.
"We heard yesterday, and respect, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's appeal and we are closely following the progress on the Egyptian truce initiative, but the fighting goes on and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] continues to operate our troops," Barak told reporters.
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