Israel wants strict monitoring of any Gaza truce

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel wants any future cease-fire deal for the Gaza Strip to include international monitoring to ensure that Hamas is living up to its obligations, Israeli officials said on Thursday.

Although it wants truce monitoring, Israel does not consider an armed international peacekeeping force a realistic option at this time because countries are unlikely to offer troops given the risk of further violence in the coastal territory, the officials said.

European monitors had been stationed at Rafah, the Gaza Strip's only border crossing with Egypt, until Hamas's takeover of the territory in 2007. Israel said that monitoring mission was flawed because the monitors lacked enforcement powers to prevent smuggling of arms and money.

"At this point there's no concrete plan for monitors. It is one of several ideas being discussed," an Israeli official said.

It is unclear how many monitors there might be, where they would be based and what specific roles they might play.

More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel's air offensive started on Saturday in response to cross-border rocket fire by militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected an immediate cease-fire but said he would consider "a diplomatic solution" that ensures that the rocket fire stops.

"I think the idea of a monitoring force -- if it is helpful in bringing about a more durable peace -- then I think the international community should seriously consider it this time," Robert Serry, the U.N.'s special envoy to the Middle East peace process, told Reuters.

"It is difficult to go into detail now, but it is very clear that we cannot go back to the status quo ante."