GAZA CITY, 22 May 2008 — Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas still differ on terms for a Gaza cease-fire that Egypt is mediating, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks said yesterday.
Egypt has been trying to broker a truce to end violence that could derail US-backed peace negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian official said Israel agreed to stop ground raids and airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip if militants halted rocket attacks, but had not accepted demands to reopen the territory’s border crossings as soon as a cease-fire begins.
“Israel offered calm for calm, and said it would assess the situation and alleviate the blockade as calm prevails,” said the official, who declined to be identified. He said Cairo was scheduled to inform Israel of Hamas’ response later yesterday after mediators met leaders from the group in Egypt.
Egyptian airport sources said a Hamas delegation from Syria headed by Moussa Abu Marzouq, Hamas’ deputy leader in exile, had left Egypt without announcing a deal. The delegate had several meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss a truce with Israel. The delegate went to Damascus to brief Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshaal, of the outcome of their meeting with Suleiman.
Gaza-based Hamas leaders were expected to continue talks during the night, and were to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. But the departure of Abu Marzouq cast doubt on prospects of an agreement.
Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last June, has offered a six-month halt to hostilities in the territory in return for an end to Israeli raids and the reopening of the border crossings.
Israel has also said a deal with Hamas must address the issue of a captive Israeli soldier. Hamas has said a truce agreement and the release of Gilad Shalit, held by Gaza fighters since 2006, should remain separate issues.
Earlier yesterday, Israel did not confirm or deny Egyptian statements that it had accepted in principle the Cairo proposal for a truce in the Gaza Strip. Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said the truce had not yet been finalized. “The process is still ongoing. It is still work in progress,” he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. “We are continuing our dialogue with Egypt.”
But in Cairo, an Egyptian official told the state news agency MENA Tuesday that Israel had expressed its support and understanding for the Egyptian proposals to end hostilities in the Gaza Strip. Those proposals include moves to be taken by both Hamas and Israel concurrently to end hostilities.
Israel has agreed to implement the proposals as soon as the leadership of the Palestinian factions approve various points in the Egyptian proposals, the official said.
Five Palestinian children were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said. The Israeli aircraft had targeted a vehicle carrying Palestinians but instead hit a car carrying the five children, witnesses said. None of the five — two babies less than a year old and children aged five, 12 and 14 — was, however, seriously hurt, the Palestinian Emergency Services said.
Meanwhile, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing at the border with the Gaza Strip yesterday to allow a total of 22 Palestinians to return to Gaza, security sources said. The Gazans, who were receiving treatment in Egyptian hospitals, were allowed to go back to their homes after they were hospitalized, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
On May 10, the border at Rafah was opened for three days to allow some 150 Palestinians to receive hospital treatment. Cairo closed the last breach in its border with the Gaza Strip on Feb. 3, ending free movement for Palestinians through a hole blown in the border wall by Palestinian gunmen.
In another development, the World Health Organization yesterday passed a resolution demanding that Israel lift its blockade of the occupied Palestinian territories, which is blamed for a shortage of medicines. WHO members attending the organization’s annual assembly in Geneva called on Israel to “reverse its policies and measures that have led to the prevailing dire health conditions and severe food and fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip.”
