Israel ready to ease Gaza blockade if truce holds

18/06/2008| IslamWeb

Israel said on Wednesday it would ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip as part of an imminent truce but warned that its military was ready to intervene if the Egyptian-brokered deal failed.

"Israel has accepted Egypt's proposals," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said. "If the fighting indeed ceases Thursday as planned, Israel will ease its blockade of Gaza next week."

 

Egypt announced the deal on Tuesday, even as Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians, including a senior fighter with an Al-Qaeda linked group.

 

Hours before the truce was to start at 0300 GMT on Thursday, Israel, which blacklists Hamas as a terror group, maintained a cautious tone.

 

A top aide of Defence Minister Ehud Barak underlined after returning from talks with the Egyptian mediators that the two sides had reached "understandings with Egypt" rather than a formal accord.

 

"If the firing of Qassam rockets continues, it will constitute a violation of the ceasefire, and the IDF (Israeli army) is also prepared for this situation, regardless of where the Qassams come from," envoy Amos Gilad added.

 

President Shimon Peres was more upbeat, saying: "We could be surprised favourably by Hamas."

 

But scepticism was high among residents on both sides of the border.

 

"They make agreements and ceasefires here and there all the time. We will wait until we see real results," said Hatem, a 30-year-old baker in Gaza City.

 

Just five kilometers (three miles) away, in the Israeli town of Sderot which bears the scars of hundreds of rockets, government employee Georges Adjedj was adamant military intervention rather than a truce was needed to pacify Gaza.

 

"Only when the IDF is inside Gaza does calm prevail," he said.

 

Egyptian mediators worked for months to secure agreement to halt the bloodshed in and around Gaza which has seen the lion's share of the 515 people killed in fighting since the revival of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in November.

 

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoun insisted on Wednesday the Islamist group would "not give Israel any pretext to violate the truce."

 

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose writ has extended only to the West Bank since Hamas ousted his forces from Gaza in June 2007, urged "all movements within the Gaza Strip to adhere to the truce."

 

The radical Islamic Jihad said it would respect the deal despite reservations, although it said its fighters had fired off nine rockets at Israel from Gaza on Wednesday.

 

Israeli authorities said Palestinian gunmen also fired at Israeli civilians working near the border fence. No one was injured, but authorities closed down the Nahal Oz terminal which supplies virtually all of Gaza's fuel.

 

Since Hamas seized power, Israel has carried out near-daily raids, killing hundreds of Gazans -- mostly militants -- but failing to halt the rocket and mortar fire which has killed four Israelis over the same period.

 

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said on Tuesday the truce would initially last for six months.

 

He said border crossings used to import goods into the impoverished Palestinian enclave would be opened hours after the truce comes into force, and Israel would lift its blockade within days.

 

Gilad, for his part, said he expected Egypt to prevent weapons from being smuggled across its border into Gaza.

 

He also said that negotiations had moved forward on a proposed exchange of Palestinians held by Israel for Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli army corporal held by Hamas since his capture in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza two years ago.

 

Syria, which is the base in exile for Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, said it supported the truce and called on Israel to honour its side of the bargain.

 

"We support this agreement," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told reporters in New Delhi.

 

"We support the lifting of the boycott of Gaza, and we hope and we are waiting to see whether the Israelis are going to fulfil their part of this truce."

 

Arab League chief Amr Mussa also welcomed the deal. "We hope it will hold. It will be useful for the situation in general," he told reporters in Jordan.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:

Mahmud Zahar (left) and Khalil al-Hayya
 

 

 

AFP