Defense minister: 'If they want a truce, it will be on our terms'

Reports that Qatar, Egypt are trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas • U.N. Security Council calls for a cease-fire in a press statement • U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calls Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to discuss the situation.

Shlomo Cesana, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti, Eli Leon, Yoni Hirsch and Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Photo credit: Haim Tzach / GPO

As Operation Protective Edge enters its sixth day, world leaders are upping pressure for a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization.

Following U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a cease-fire on Thursday, intelligence heads in Turkey and Qatar have also offered to help reach a cease-fire agreement, according to a Channel 2 report.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, "If they [Hamas] want a truce, it will be on our terms. If not, we will continue to crush them."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has yet to reveal information about possible cease-fire negotiations, however, according to the report, the Israeli government rejected the Turkish offer due to the country's intelligence relationship with Iran, and is still considering the Qatari offer.

An official in Jerusalem responded to the reports, saying that Israel's goal is to restore calm and that "we will achieve calm through either military or diplomatic means."

A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said over the weekend that "there are negotiations. In our experience, there are many different ways to end the violence.

"The important thing, in my opinion, is not a paper that outlines agreements, but rather the other side's understanding that there is a very capable, very effective defense system facing them, that their rocket fire is hopeless and that there is a high price to be paid for their violence."

Arab media outlets quoted over the weekend Hamas officials confirming that Egypt and Qatar are working to broker a truce between the sides. According to the officials, Hamas is refusing to discuss a cease-fire framework based on the agreements reached during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, as long as Israel does not immediately stop attacking Gaza.

At the same time, in Ramallah, officials stressed that a relative drop in Hamas rocket fire was over the weekend was due to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' diplomatic efforts with Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders.

An official in Abbas' office told Israel Hayom that "Abbas asked the leaders to give a chance to his diplomatic efforts at the United Nations and with other Arab countries."

U.S. swings into high gear

Shortly after Obama's phone call with Netanyahu on Thursday, during which he condemned Hamas' rocket fire, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, "There are a number of relationships the United States has that we are willing to leverage in the region to try to bring about an end to the rocket fire that's originating in Gaza and, as we saw this morning, in Lebanon.

"We are interested in taking the kinds of steps that we did about a year and a half ago in November of 2012 to facilitate a cease-fire and to try to get this situation back on the path of de-escalation."

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Ya'alon and expressed concerns about the possibility of an escalation in violence between Israel and Hamas.

"We made it clear, both President Obama last night, as well as in my conversation with Minister Ya'alon, that we want to do everything we can to help stop what's going on and encourage all sides to not escalate and not let these hostilities get out of control any more than they are," Hagel said after the phone call.

At the U.N., an attempt made by Arab countries to have Israel officially condemned was thwarted by the United States and European countries. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council issued a statement calling for a cease-fire.

"The Security Council members called for de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, and reinstitution of the November 2012 cease-fire," the 15-member body said in the statement.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to meet with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, among others, on the sidelines of the nuclear talks between the world powers and Iran in Vienna to discuss the ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met with Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Cairo on Saturday, and both of them called for a de-escalation of the violence.