A mobile artillery piece fires towards targets in the southern Gaza Strip, on the Israel side of the border with Gaza. Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009 (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)
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In other fighting, Hamas militants launched at least 24 rockets at southern Israel, lightly injuring three people. Rockets hit an empty kindergarten and a children's playground in the city of Ashdod.
The rockets have disrupted life for hundreds of thousands of terrified people who rush into bunkers and basements at the sound of warning sirens. Four people have died in rocket attacks.
However, thousands of children in southern Israel returned to school Sunday for the first time in two weeks. Schools had been closed since the beginning of the offensive, but the military said schools that have been sufficiently fortified against attack could reopen.
British Mideast envoy Tony Blair and Germany's top diplomat visited Jerusalem Sunday, and Israel planned to send a senior defense official this week to Egypt, which is trying to broker a truce.
Blair met Olmert and said a plan to end the fighting must include a halt to weapons smuggling and the opening of border crossings into Gaza. He said urgency was vital because "every day this action continues there are more people that die."
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, appeared at a news conference with his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, in Jerusalem.
"The shooting of Qassam rockets and other weapons must be stopped and the smuggling of new weapons to the Gaza Strip for re-arming, or even to improve the weapons of Hamas, must be stopped," Steinmeier said.
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Barzak reported from Gaza City and Torchia from Jerusalem. AP reporter Karen Zolka contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
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