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Occupied Jerusalem: A rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman on Monday, just as an Egyptian mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel, underlining both the urgency and complexity of working out a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The rocket hit a house in the village of Yesha, near the Gaza Strip. As recently as Friday, a fatal rocket attack drew reprisal Israeli airstrikes that killed five Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev denounced the latest attack but did not say it would halt the Gaza truce talks. "The rocket fire into Israel will end. It will end either because calm will be achieved, or Israel will act to protect its people," he said.
The talks by mediator Omar Suleiman, Egypt's powerful intelligence chief, produced no tangible results on Monday, even before the deadly rocket strike. He came to discuss Egypt's months of talks with the Hamas movement and many smaller militant groups in the coastal territory.
The outline of the envisioned ceasefire would be a six-month truce, stopping near daily Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks and Israel's military reprisals. Also, Israel would ease the punishing economic blockade it imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in violence last June.
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