18 days on from the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israeli reservists started to take part in the clashes against the Palestinian resistance in eastern and western Gaza City. Meanwhile, Egypt is making political and diplomatic efforts to win international support for its ceasefire initiative for the Gaza Strip. Qatar has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait next Saturday to discuss the situation in Gaza. Meanwhile, US President George Bush said the best way to guarantee the ceasefire is to work with Egypt to stop arms smuggling into Gaza. According to Israeli officials, the deployment of reservists did not indicate the start of the third phase of the military operation against Gaza, which killed 19 people yesterday. Meanwhile, the death toll of the aggression has risen to 910 (277 children, 95 women, 88 elderly, 12 rescuers and four journalists among the others), while the wounded are now 4,090. The Israeli government apologized to Egypt for injuring some Egyptians while bombarding the Palestinian side of the city of Rafah. An Egyptian source declared the talks between Minister Omar Suleiman and a delegation of the Hamas movement on the Egyptian initiative had had good results, pointing out that the talks in Cairo were still underway. He also indicated that two members of the delegation had left for Damascus to brief the president of the movement's political bureau Khaled Meshaal on the outcome of the talks. "We're waiting for Hamas' response to the Egyptian initiative and we want to strike a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip" the minister said.
