UN official says Israel attacked during lull

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Palestinians in Gaza believed Israel had called a 48-hour "lull" in retaliatory attacks with Hamas when Israeli warplanes launched a massive bombardment of militant installations in the Gaza Strip, a U.N. official said Monday.

Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees, raised the possible violation of an informal truce in a video press conference with U.N. reporters from her base in Gaza.

Israel's U.N. Mission referred any comment on the reported lull to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office in Jerusalem. Olmert's office did not answer telephone calls for comment early Tuesday morning.

Abu Zayd said Palestinians in Gaza were surprised when Israeli warplanes sent more than 100 tons of bombs crashing down on key security installations in Hamas-ruled Gaza starting Saturday morning because it was in the middle of the lull.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UN_ISRAEL_GAZA_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-29-21-35-53

Hamas thought there was a lull based on information planted in the media by the Israeli government, Its was an intentional deception, which the Russians call a maskarova. Reading between the lines, false information may also have been given to the UN.