'No Negotiations:' Olmert Rules Out Cease-Fire Deal Proposed By Hamas
Compiled By Daily Star Staff Monday,
June 04, 2007
DailyStar
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday brushed off a Hamas cease-fire feeler, pledging instead to press ahead with the Jewish state's campaign against Palestinian fighters in the Occupied Territories.
In recent days there has been a sharp reduction in Palestinian rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip, and Hamas has even suggested a one-year truce with Israel.
At the weekly meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, Olmert said Israel would not ease its military campaign against Palestinian militants.
"In light of what appears to be a drop in Qassam rocket fire, I want to make clear: We are not holding negotiations. We are not committing to changing our method of operations," the prime minister said.
"The security forces will continue to operate against the terrorists in the south, in the Gaza Strip area, and in the West Bank relentlessly. No one has immunity."
"Operations are bringing results and will continue as long as they continue to contribute to the preservation of [our] security interests," Olmert said.
A Palestinian official said Israeli attacks alone were not responsible for the falloff in rocket launchings.
"It is due to mediation efforts by Egypt and by [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas," the official said, while noting that no official suspension in the attacks had been agreed.
In an interview published over the weekend in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Hamas deputy political leader Moussa Abu Marzouk suggested the group may be interested in a one-year truce with Israel.
But "both parties have to abide by it," he said.
A member of the Hamas political bureau, Mohammad Nazzal, confirmed that the group was considering a truce.
"Some private ideas were presented to Hamas [by Egyptian mediators] to reach a truce with Israel, and Hamas is about to undertake the suitable decision," Nazzal said by telephone from Damascus.
Abbas has been trying to press Hamas, his coalition partner, to renew the truce. Under his proposal, Hamas and other militant groups would halt cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza and Israel would stop air strikes against them.
According to the plan, which Hamas and Israel have publicly rebuffed, the truce would be extended to the occupied West Bank within a month.
But Israel says it is skeptical of Hamas' intentions.
"The current cease-fire in Gaza is unfortunately a sham," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "It would seem that before we talk about expanding the cease-fire, we should first get it right."
Early Sunday, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
That clash came not long after Israeli troops on an overnight arrest raid in the nearby town of Nablus killed a Palestinian civilian, according to Palestinian security officials. The army said troops fired at a gunman.
Later, Hamas fighters fired mortars at an army base near Gaza. The mortar attack seriously wounded one soldier and slightly wounded three others.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet on Sunday that the army would continue its Gaza operations.
"We do not intend to let Hamas make a decision on a cease-fire," his office quoted him as saying.
"We must guarantee that the situation where Hamas solves its problems by firing on Israel does not occur again."
Israel says there can be no major progress on the diplomatic front before the release an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid nearly a year ago. Secret negotiations for a prisoner swap have not succeeded.
In an interview published Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said Israel and Hamas remained far apart on the terms of a swap.
- Agencies
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