Israel confirms agreement to Gaza truce with Hamas

[Muhsin]

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM, June 18 (Reuters) - Israel said on Wednesday it accepted an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip but voiced scepticism the ceasefire involving all Palestinian militant groups in the territory would hold.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official, said after returning from talks in Cairo that "an understanding" had been reached. Egypt and Hamas said on Tuesday a ceasefire would go into effect at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Thursday.

Gilad told Israeli media that Israel was prepared to give a ceasefire a chance -- while continuing preparations for possible military action should it fall apart.

A ceasefire would aim to end frequent rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel from the coastal enclave and Israeli raids and air strikes in the territory.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said under the truce, the blockade Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip after Hamas seized the territory a year ago would be loosened gradually and partially.

"Everybody knows the situation in Gaza, where 1.5 million people living there are absolutely miserable," said Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. "Our hope is that (the ceasefire) would lead to an easing of those difficult conditions."

The United States pressed for calm to remove an obstacle in slow-moving peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A ceasefire could also give Hamas the opportunity to upgrade weaponry and train fighters and boost its popularity among Palestinians if Gaza border crossings reopen.

Meir Sheetrit, Israel's interior minister and a member of its security cabinet, said he was "very sceptical" Hamas could enforce a complete ceasefire among the militant groups.

"The idea is a complete ceasefire -- no fire from anyone ... if there is any violation of the agreement, the government is free to return to act with full force," Sheetrit said.

The truce does not cover the occupied West Bank. But Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said the group reserved the right to respond with force "even from Gaza" to any Israeli raids in the West Bank.

The most recent Gaza ceasefire, in November 2006, broke down quickly.

HAMAS LEADER

In an interview with Reuters in the United Arab Emirates, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said a lasting truce would be good for Gazans who have suffered from the Israeli blockade.

The Damascus-based leader also said any Israeli violation of the deal would not go unanswered.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, said that after a few days of calm, there would be a "substantial increase" in the amount of supplies that Israel allows into the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said that in the first phase, imports would be set at approximately one-third of the level before the Hamas takeover and the percentage would grow gradually if the truce held.

Israel has cut back on the supply of non-essential goods, such as construction materials, as well as fuel, saying Gazans could not lead normal lives while Israelis were under fire.

Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, said Israel and Hamas had an interest in making the ceasefire work.

"Hamas ... sustained a lot of losses," Mekelberg said, adding: "It's obvious (to Israel) that the military solution doesn't work. It provides only a partial solution."

Israeli officials said the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt -- Gazans' only gateway to the outside world that does not pass through Israel -- was conditioned on a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier.

Meshaal said Gilad Shalit, seized two years ago by Gaza gunmen, would not be released unless Israel freed Palestinian prisoners on a list compiled by Hamas. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Lin Noueihed and Ahmed Jadallah in Abu Dhabi, Adam Entous, Avida Landau and Brenda Gazzar in Jerusalem; Editing by Charles Dick)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKL18607678._CH_.242020080618?sp=true


That sounds momentous! As it'll last...but Jewish? :o :o :o They, so easily, break promise always. Wish this will last for some times to come, or forever, we also hope.

[HUSNAA]

Muhsin, be a bit more objective dan Allah.

[King]

Yea! hope it lasts for 48 hours at least. The trouble is Hammas and its allies have no other work skills. If you take fighting the Israelis away from them, what else would they do? Have you ever seen a drug addict in rehab? Once the addictive substance is taken away from them, they fall into a state of withdrawal. They body twitches uncontrollably, they utter all kinds of inaudible sounds, etc. In some very extreme cases, the caregiver is forced to administer some very tiny dose of the same drug the addict is hooked on, just so their system does not shut down. This may be what is happening to Hammas right now. Somebody better find them something to do on the interim before they get bored and break the ceasefire, or even worse, start attacking other Palestinian groups. I am justing speaking as a concerned member of the plight of the Palestinian people.

[Muhsin]

Muhsin, be a bit more objective dan Allah.

Wallahi tallahi I'd been anticipating seeing expression like this very one from Husnaa. Let me tell or well confess it; I wrote this in my last sconds and submitted it without even signing out my user account! Why? My time, at that momment, was finishing. But I wished I'd, since, added more words which, had it been I had written, would have saved me from being accussed like this.

To bussiness; I know both the two parties--Isra'el and Hamas (or Fatah, Islamic/Al'aqsa Brigade, etc for more examples) are all the same in the sense of breaking (cease fire) aggrements. But that of Isra'el (Jewish), as I solely believe for I read in history, is more terrible and known.

Think now am, a bit more, objective and unbias.

My prayer; wish it'll last for some times to come, amin.