Israel has rejected Egyptian calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Yedioth Ahronoth quoted high-ranking Israeli political sources as saying that the Israeli response to the Egyptian proposal was: “Do not talk to us now, we are collecting the price and reinforcing deterrence.”

Gaza death toll [Infographic]

The political sources added that “the general perception of the Israeli political leadership is that the Egyptians, as well as the international community, will allow Israeli operations until Eid El-Fitr, that is, until Wednesday-Thursday night.”

An Israeli political source said that “Israel depends on the result that the Israeli army will achieve. We want the army to intensify the attacks.”

A minister and member of the Israeli cabinet for political and security affairs told Yedioth Ahronoth that “the initial strike by the Israeli army should have been ten times more powerful than we saw. We will pay the price anyway, so why did not they respond in a way that shows that this is payback for launching rockets at Jerusalem? Unfortunately, the current logic now is to contain the situation.”

The political source noted that the cabinet directed the Israeli army to launch a wide military operation that includes assassinations, targeting infrastructure and weapons stores, and almost any target except for a land invasion while obtaining the cabinet’s approval because “there are no restrictions in their way.”

Yedioth Ahronoth indicated that, contrary to the claims of the Israeli army spokesman Haidai Zilberman yesterday, the political leadership did not hold the Israeli army back from firing 36 projectiles on Friday evening two and a half weeks ago.