( Reuters ) - Israel has asked U.N. aid agencies how long it would take them to set up "humanitarian corridors" from Egypt to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in the event of a broad Israeli offensive, Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the assessments were part of Israel's stepped up "contingency planning" should such an operation be ordered to try to stop cross-border rocket fire by militants.
Israeli forces killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half identified by medical workers as civilians, in a five-day Gaza assault that ended on Monday before a visit to Israel and the West Bank by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Israel threatened to send troops back into the territory if rocket salvoes continued.
A sustained ground offensive would likely lead Israel to close its border crossings with the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized by force in June after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's more secular Fatah forces.
In closed-door meetings, Israel asked the U.N. agencies specifically about the feasibility of opening aid corridors from the Egyptian town of El Arish to Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a distance of about 30 km.
Aid agencies have warned Israel a major offensive could lead to a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory, where an Israeli-led economic blockade has already increased hardship.
Nearly 80 percent of Gazans are dependent on food aid, much of which comes from U.N. aid agencies.