Anchor Lisa Mullins gets the latest on the conflict between Israel and Hamas from The World's Quil Lawrence, who's at the Gaza border. There was a three-hour break in the fighting today. Both Israel and Hamas are reportedly considering a ceasefire, but there's no agreement yet.
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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. There was a break in the fighting in Gaza today. It lasted three hours exactly. Israel temporarily suspended its military operations in Gaza. The move was designed to allow Palestinian civilians to get relief supplies and medical attention. Fighting resumed in Gaza, but Israeli officials say there will be a truce daily. United Nations relief agency in Gaza says that's not enough. It says there has to be a permanent cease-fire to address the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory. The UN estimates that at least 670 people have been killed since the offensive began 12 days ago. Israel and Hamas are reportedly considering a permanent cease-fire, but there hasn't been any agreement reached yet. The World's Quil Lawrence is now on the Gaza Border near the Israeli town of Sderot. Quil, describe what you saw during this pause in the fighting today.
QUIL LAWRENCE: At 1:00 local time, what had been a relatively steady amount of military activity just ended. We heard – just after the cease-fire, I heard one thud that I thought was a mortar being launched, but I couldn't get any confirmation from either side that there was any fighting continuing. And then I did hear some machine gun fire as well, and the Israeli Defense Forces told me that twice during the cease-fire, they returned fire, they said, when they were attacked. But for the most part, it was three hours of quiet. And Israel said they were doing this in order to allow the humanitarian aid that they've been letting across their border on the southern part of the Gaza Strip each day to be distributed up across the Strip and across the battle lines.
MULLINS: So what happened then at the end of the three hours?
LAWRENCE: Well, quite punctually at the end of three hours, the activity resumed. Now, we had been seeing the attack helicopters and these unmanned drones that make sort of a high whining noise overhead, we'd been seeing them during the time of the truce, but right around 4:00 local time, just as the sun was starting to sink low, we saw jets go over, we saw the drones, we saw the attack helicopters dropping off their flares, and then loud noises and huge plumes of black smoke of what looked like the Jabaliyah refugee camp, which is between where I'm standing now and Gaza City. And it hasn't let up.
MULLINS: If Israel controls the air over Gaza, the sea, the land around Gaza with this ground troop movement, is the -- what's the motivation for Israel to provide Gazans with essential supplements? And we just heard yesterday in fact from an Israeli Major who said that there wasn't any intent to do this at that point. There wasn't any plan to do it. It seemed to happen pretty much overnight. What was the motivation?
LAWRENCE: Well, yesterday, an Israeli air strike hit a school and killed around 40 people. Israel claimed that this UN school had been used in the past as a site to launch rockets and mortars. Sources inside the Strip claimed that it was no such thing; that this was a strike that killed only civilians, including women and children. Now, Israel did not issue an official apology for that, they just issued an explanation that it was a legitimate military target. But this might have increased the pressure on Israel to show that it is concerned about civilian casualties. They have been allowing trucks of food in almost everyday since this offensive began, but there was – there were complaints inside the Strip that this food wasn't getting distributed up across the battle lines. So this seems to be an effort by the Israelis to show that they care about the civilians inside the Gaza Strip.
MULLINS: At the same time, Quil, are there any diplomatic developments to end the fighting altogether or impose a permanent cease-fire once again?
LAWRENCE: Yes. There's a diplomatic initiative. It's being called the French-Egyptian Initiative. And President Sarkozy of France has said that it's been accepted in principle by Egypt, by Israel, and by the Palestinian Authority. We have not heard yet whether Hamas is accepting this, and that's of course the most important question.
MULLINS: All right. Tank you very much. The World's Quil Lawrence in southern Israel. Thanks again.
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