On Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak requested his fellow ministers' approval to call up an additional 2,500 reservists for the operation in Gaza. The cabinet voted Sunday to approve the call-up of 6,700 IDF reservists. Cabinet Secretary Oved Yechezkel began contacting ministers by telephone on Tuesday night to win their support for the emergency call-up. Barak has asked Yechezkel to get the ministers' approval as quickly as possible.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met on Monday and again on Tuesday to discuss the situation. The three would not detail Israel's plans, but Olmert said Tuesday that the plan had not changed since Saturday, when Operation Cast Lead began.
As reservists gathered near the Gaza border on Tuesday several media outlets published reports saying senior officials in the defense establishment support a 48-hour ceasefire. The ceasefire would be used to test Hamas and see if the terrorist group would stop firing rockets, reports said.
IDF spokesmen denied reports of a planned ceasefire, and Hamas leaders said they would continue to fire on Israel whether or not Israeli operations continue.
The “Cast Lead” operation in Gaza has so far been limited to airstrikes. The strikes have demolished more than 90 percent of Hamas's security-related structures in Gaza and killed approximately 370 people, most of them armed terrorists.