GAZA CITY, 25 April 2008 — Hamas is mulling agreeing to a phased truce that would only extend to the West Bank in a second stage in return for an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a Hamas official told AFP yesterday. “Hamas is leaning toward the idea of a truce that begins in the Gaza Strip and is then extended to the West Bank in a second stage, on condition that the enemy cease its aggression and reopen the (Gaza) border crossings, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt,” Ghazi Hamad said.
“Today, a Hamas delegation gave its response and point of view (on a truce) to our Egyptian brothers,” he added. The delegation led by Mahmoud Zahar, one of a number of Hamas leaders who met former US President Jimmy Carter in Damascus last week, was in Cairo to discuss a possible truce with Israel.
Egypt has been serving as go-between in the negotiations with Israel, which blacklists Hamas as a terror group and refuses any direct contacts. Israel has sealed off Gaza to all but very limited humanitarian aid since the Islamist group seized control of the territory from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June.
Hamas leaders prefer to use the expression “period of calm” rather than talk of a formal truce. “Any period of calm between us and Israel must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive, and must include lifting the blockade and ceasing all aggression,” another Hamas official, Ismail Radwan, told AFP.
“We are waiting for a response from the Zionist enemy through the Egyptians, which will be presented to other Palestinian factions. No calm will happen without their agreement,” he said. Israel’s conditions for a truce include a halt to rocket attacks from Gaza and other Hamas “terrorism,” and an end to what it says is rampant arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Wednesday night and held a meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman yesterday afternoon, added spokesman Taher Al-Nono in Cairo.
Meanwhile, several Israeli Army tanks and bulldozers stormed before dawn yesterday the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing one Palestinian militant, medics and witnesses reported. The witnesses said the Israeli Army forces rolled into the northern area of the town amid intensive gunfire, adding militants confronted the Israeli forces and clashed with the soldiers.
Mo’aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry said that one Palestinian was killed and three wounded by Israeli troops’ gunfire.
An Israeli Army spokesman told Israeli Radio Arabic service that that there is no time limit for the operation in Beit Hanoun, which aims at preventing firing homemade rockets from the area at Israel. The residents said that around 20 tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by helicopters stormed Al-Sekka neighborhood in the town, and are still operating in the area.
Al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Hamas movement’s armed wing, said its militants confronted the Israeli Army forces with RBG missiles and mortar shells. No injuries were reported among the soldiers. Meanwhile, in Khan Younis, Israeli warplanes struck a house west of the town, adding that the missile was basically fired at a group of militants, but the rocket missed them and hit the house causing severe damage.
Mohammed Mar’i adds from Ramallah:
Israel forces yesterday evacuated around 40 Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign left-wing activists who managed to overtake the Yad Yair settlement outpost near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where they managed to lower an Israeli flag, hoisting a Palestinian flag in its place and removed dirt roadblocks in the vicinity of the site.
Jewish settlers from neighboring West Bank settlements also arrived at the site to evict the activists. The outpost near the village of Ein Qinya to the west of Ramallah was formerly an Israeli base, and today houses an improvised synagogue and a memorial to an Israeli resident who was killed in a shooting attack in the area.
The outpost is not inhabited, but settlers from nearby settlements come there on occasion to hold prayers. The mobile home has been torched by Palestinians several times, but the Israeli forces refuse to secure the place and offered the settlers to relocate the synagogue into one of their communities. The Israeli Army closed the street that connects Ein Qinya with surrounding villages with cement blocks since the start of intifada in the year 200.
