WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Israel-Hamas truce begins but duration in doubt
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-19 19:47 GAZA - Israel and Hamas halted fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday but, with wider peace prospects hazy, both sides voiced doubt over how long the Egyptian- brokered ceasefire might hold.
Just before the truce went into effect after dawn an Israeli missile strike killed one Palestinian gunman and wounded another near the border fence with Israel in the central part of the Gaza Strip, medical workers and militants said. The truce began at 6 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT) after another day of cross-border violence. Dozens of improvised Palestinian rockets and mortar bombs hit south Israel, without causing serious damage and Israeli air strikes had wounded several Gaza gunmen. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Sydney Morning Herald that the truce pact was the militant group's last chance to avoid another Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip. "I think the strategy of Hamas, which does not want to recognize Israel's right to exist in the first place, and the extremism, and the fanaticism, and the religious dogmatism, is the enemy of peace," Olmert said. In a speech on Wednesday, Olmert had warned the agreement with Hamas was "fragile and likely to be short-lived." For Hamas, suspending hostilities should spell some relief from an Israeli-led blockade and may help them gain legitimacy in the West and reconciliation with Abbas, who is in the midst of US-sponsored peace negotiations with Olmert. Hamas's armed wing said in a statement published just as the ceasefire began, that it is "fully ready to launch a military strike that would shake the Zionist entity if they did not abide by all the items of the calm." The truce comes as Olmert also pursues a prisoner swap with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and indirect talks with Syria, as well as floating a suggestion of peace with Lebanon. Some of his many critics see all that as part of the prime minister's efforts to defend his political position in the midst of a corruption investigation that could cost him his job. "National responsibility" Western officials said Israel planned to allow in a slightly higher number of truckloads of goods starting on Sunday, provided the truce was still in place. The Palestinians have demanded the full flow of imports restored. Hamas rules Gaza but smaller Palestinian armed groups have in the past defied its ceasefire calls. The most recent Gaza truce, in November 2006, broke down quickly. UN envoy Robert Serry said a truce between Hamas and Israel and a possible reconciliation between Hamas and Abbas could provide conditions for UN peacekeepers in Gaza. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh voiced confidence all factions would respect Thursday's deal out of a sense of "national responsibility." On an unusually conciliatory note, Haniyeh told reporters the truce could offer "comfort" to Israelis who have suffered shelling from Gaza. But Hamas made clear it was ready to resume attacks. The truce does not cover the occupied West Bank, where Abbas holds sway and where Israeli troops regularly operate. Bloodshed there could potentially trigger reprisals from Gaza. Jamila al-Athamna, a Palestinian woman who lost 19 relatives to an Israeli tank shell in 2006, voiced hope that the calm will help both Palestinians and Israelis. "I hope things will be good and that people will no longer sleep on fear and horror. I hope there will no more rockets, no more gunfire and no more drones in skies," she said. Cairo is also mediating on the return of an Israeli soldier held in Gaza for almost two years. Israeli officials said the reopening of the Rafah border crossing that lets people travel between Gaza and Egypt depended on a deal to free Gilad Shalit. Another Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, said Shalit's release depended on Israel freeing Palestinian prisoners. |
