Israel might be ready to consider a new truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Monday, changing tone after a weekend of escalating threats against the Palestinian Islamist group.
A six-month Gaza ceasefire expired on Friday with a surge of cross-border fighting. Israel said a wider offensive was in the works, and leading candidates to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a February 10 ballot pledged to topple Hamas if elected.
But a member of Olmert's security cabinet questioned the long-term efficacy of any major military sweep of the crowded and impoverished coastal strip, and said renewing the truce, originally brokered by Egypt, could be an option, reported Reuters.
"The calm is, of course, one alternative, and it is an alternative that can be seriously examined," Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog told Israel Radio. "I, like many of my colleagues, am ready to consider continuing the calm, on terms that are comfortable for Israel."
Hamas, which is formally sworn to the Jewish state's destruction but in the past has offered to suspend hostilities as part of a long-term accord, brushed off Herzog's comments.
"We have not sought a (new) calm, and we will never seek it or ask anyone to mediate in order to resume it or renew it," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
"Our focus now is to strengthen the front of resistance, to protect the Palestinian people and to confront any possible Zionist aggression."
During the truce, Hamas had accused Israel of poor faith due to its protracted closure of crossings into Gaza, a lifeline of humanitarian and commercial goods for 1.5 million Palestinians.
Israel blamed security threats for the closures. Many Israelis also voiced dismay at the truce's failure to advance negotiations for the return of a soldier held in Gaza.
Israel would likely limit any broader assault on Gaza to air strikes targeting Hamas leaders. But analysts believe that would invite retaliatory Hamas rocket barrages reaching deeper into Israel, in turn triggering a bloody Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Spiraling Gaza violence could boost the electoral prospects of right-wing Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu against his centrist rival, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is also a candidate.
Israeli officials previously voiced desire to maintain calm but Egypt said on Friday it had not been asked to intercede.
Since the truce ended, dozens of short-range rockets and mortar bombs have been fired into Israel from Gaza. Most of the rocket fire was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group with loose links to Hamas. Over the weekend, an Israeli air strike killed one Palestinian militant.
Israeli Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon, who has long called for an invasion of Gaza in which Hamas would be crushed, said on Monday the Olmert government was not considering such an option.
"There has been no decision by the Israeli government to bring about the end of Hamas. Neither has there been a decision to continue the calm," Ramon told Army Radio.