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Subject:
What truce?
Herald12345
6/24/2008 10:48:23 PM
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Rockets fired at Israel from Gaza shake truce
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 24, 4:25 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, threatening to unravel a cease-fire days after it began, and Israel responded by closing vital border crossings into Gaza.
Despite what it called a "gross violation" of the truce, Israel refrained from military action and said it would send an envoy soon to Egypt to work on the next stage of a broader cease-fire agreement: a prisoner swap that would bring home an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for more than two years.
Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules Gaza, promised to rein in the Iran- and Syria-backed faction that carried out the rocket attacks and pledged to remain committed to the truce that went into effect June 19 and urged restraint by all sides.
The fact that the cease-fire held up despite the severe strain was an indication that both sides had a lot at stake in the negotiations for a broader agreement. Hamas wants to show it can break the Israeli blockade and provide much-needed relief to Gaza's beleaguered residents, while Israel wants to stop the daily rocket fire that has disrupted the lives of thousands of its citizens.
The midafternoon barrage, which slightly wounded two people, capped a day of violence that presented the truce with its first serious test. Just before midnight, Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell into an empty area in southern Israel. And in a pre-dawn raid, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians, one of them an Islamic Jihad area commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Islamic Jihad, a militant group backed by Syria and Iran, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire from Gaza. Although the West Bank is not included in the truce agreement, the group said the rockets were retaliation for the Nablus raid.
"We cannot keep our hands tied when this is happening to our brothers in the West Bank," the group said.
A neighbor said a Palestinian bystander was also shot to death by troops when he opened the door of his apartment during the raid. The Israeli military said the man was a militant killed during a gunbattle with troops.
Hamas accused Israel of provoking the rocket fire but moved quickly to lower tensions and said it would talk to Islamic Jihad to ensure quiet.
"We in Hamas are committed to the calm. We will talk and we will make sure that all of the factions are committed to the calm, too," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Israeli government spokesman David Baker called the rocket fire "a gross violation of the calm."
Israel took no military action but late Tuesday decided to shut the crossings, cutting off shipments of basic supplies that had been increased as part of the truce deal, according to defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been made public. There was no word on when the crossings would be reopened.
In Berlin, the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers ? made up of the U.S., the European Union, the U.N. and Russia ? called Tuesday for a cease-fire between Israel and militants in Gaza to be respected "in full" and voiced hope that the truce will last.
The Egyptian-brokered deal aims to end a year of violence that has killed more than 400 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and seven Israelis in a bloody cycle of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals.
Egypt hopes to mediate a deal in which Israel would release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border attack in June 2006.
Hamas' larger goal is for Israel to reopen Gaza's strategic border crossing with Egypt. The Rafah crossing has been sealed since the Hamas takeover, preventing the vast majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people from traveling in and out of the area. Israel has said Rafah will open only after the captured soldier returns home.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks Tuesday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, focusing on the issues of the soldier and the crossing. An Israeli official with Olmert's delegation said Egypt gave assurances that Rafah would not open without the soldier's release.
Israel has balked at Hamas' demands that some 450 prisoners be released in exchange for the soldier. Israel, which holds some 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, says the list of names submitted by Hamas is full of militants involved in deadly attacks.
After the summit, officials from all sides said Egypt is working to bring Israel and Hamas into talks in the coming days to negotiate the exchange and solidify the truce. In the talks, which could start late this week or early next week, Egyptian mediators would shuttle between Israeli and Hamas delegations in separate locations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Israeli officials said the top Israeli negotiator on the prisoner swap, Ofer Dekel, is to travel to Cairo on Thursday. Despite Tuesday's rocket attack, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said there were no plans to alter Dekel's schedule.
A Hamas official said those talks could begin Sunday, and underlined that its delegation would not be in the same building as the Israelis.
"Our demands are still the same, that the prisoners whose names we handed over to the Egyptians previously must be released," said Osama al-Muzzini, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
The cease-fire is meant to avert an Israeli invasion of Gaza, a tiny, impoverished seaside territory of 1.4 million people that Israel evacuated in 2005 after a 38-year military occupation. The deal extends beyond Hamas to all militant groups operating in Gaza but does not include the West Bank.
While battling Hamas, Israel is conducting peace talks with the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank. Israel, however, continues to arrest wanted men in the West Bank, saying the Palestinians have not done enough to control militants there.
In another development, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has invited him and fellow negotiator Ahmed Qureia to Washington next month to discuss their talks with Israel. While dealing with Gaza, Israel is also talking peace with the West Bank government headed by moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. Erekat told The Associated Press that this was the first time the negotiators have been invited to Washington for bilateral talks.
Also on Tuesday, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrapped up a three-day visit, officials said an Israeli police officer fatally shot himself in the head at a farewell ceremony for the visiting leader at Ben-Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv. The shooting prompted bodyguards to whisk Sarkozy, his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and Olmert to safety, officials said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld denied reports that there had been an assassination attempt on Sarkozy, and other police officials said the leaders were never in danger.
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Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, and Steve Weizman in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, contributed to this report.
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Related.
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Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem, and Jenny Booth
{video of incicdent at link}
An Israeli border policeman prompted scenes of panic at a Tel Aviv airport this afternoon by committing suicide at a farewell ceremony for President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and his wife, Carla Bruni.
All protocol was dropped as the man's body fell from a high vantage point and a shot rang out. Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni were surrounded by their secret service agents and hastily bundled aboard their plane.
Security guards for Ehud Olmert pulled out their handguns and hustled the Israeli Prime Minister and his entourage into waiting bullet-proof limousines.
When the incident ended, however, Mr Olmert and Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, boarded the Sarkozy plane to say a proper goodbye.
Israel Radio said that the officer who died was about 100m away from the Sarkozy plane as it waited on the runway at Ben Gurion, Israel's largest international airport. Two women soldiers who witnessed the incident fainted and were treated by medics.
The policeman apparently fell from a vantage point on a high building, where he had been guarding the event. Reports suggest the policeman shot himself in the head. ?This was in no way an assassination attempt,? said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman. ?A border policeman ... committed suicide during the farewell ceremony.?
According to Mr Rosenfeld, the guard who shot himself was a paramilitary policeman and had been assigned to a security patrol at the airport.
The area police commander, Nissim Mor, said police were investigating the incident to determine if the officer had intended to commit suicide, or if he had accidentally discharged his weapon. ?His mission was to secure an area to prevent people from reaching the ceremony,? he said.
The drama capped a day of tension as Palestinian militants fired at least two rockets into Israel from Gaza, in breach of the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, Gaza's Islamist rulers.
The rockets struck an unoccupied home in the Israeli border town of Sderot, breaking the five-day old truce, said local rescue teams. Two people were lightly wounded.
"This is a blatant violation of the calm, and we will weigh options," an aide quoted Mr Olmert as saying after the rockets struck.
The Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect last Thursday, calls on Hamas to prevent cross-border fire from the Gaza Strip, which it seized by force a year ago.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, calling it a "first response" to Israel's killing overnight of a local commander of the militant group and another Palestinian, who was affiliated with Hamas, in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The truce deal, under which Israel agreed to halt its own operations in the Gaza Strip and to ease its economic blockade of the impoverished enclave, does not apply to the West Bank.
The Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas group says it remains committed to the truce, and promised to rein in the numerous militant groups who operate in Gaza.
Israeli officials would not say how they would react to the incident.
Mr Olmert has today been meeting mediators in Egypt to discuss promoting the truce.
The ability of Hamas to control other militant groups in Gaza is a weak point in the Egyptian-brokered truce. Islamic Jihad was one of the few groups to publicly announce that it would adhere to the terms of the ceasefire last week.
An Islamic Jihad member, speaking from Gaza, confirmed that one of the militants killed by Israel in the West Bank was Tareq Abu Ghali, 24, a senior member of the group. ?We had to retaliate for the righteous blood spilled by the [Israelis],? he said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad wanted the West Bank to be included in the ceasefire, but Israel reserved the right to act in that area, which is controlled by the moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The violence came as representatives from more than 40 countries are meeting in Germany for a conference meant to boost support for the Palestinian Authority police force.
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One acerbic comment. Until the investigation concludes, the reported suicide is typical journalistic overreach and sensationalism.
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Olmert coalition at risk in Israel parliament vote
24 Jun 2008 22:13:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, June 25 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, beset by a corruption scandal and Gaza violence, faces a new battle on Wednesday in a parliamentary vote that could split his government.
The Labour party of Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Olmert's junior coalition partner, has pledged to support an opposition bill to dissolve the Knesset and hold early elections in protest at a police investigation into the prime minister's finances.
Short of Labour's support, Olmert's Kadima party is unlikely to muster enough votes to block the legislation. Subsequent ratification readings could be held by the end of parliament's summer session in late July, spelling the government's fall. The crisis comes as Olmert tries to meet a U.S.-set deadline for a peace accord with the Palestinians, pursues Turkish-mediated talks with Syria, puts together a prisoner swap with Lebanese Hezbollah and monitors Iran's nuclear programme.
Lawmakers said that Olmert and Barak, both of whom trail hawkish ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opinion polls, were trying to find a way for Labour to back off the bill. "I think that, ultimately, everyone understands we need to preserve stability," said Yoel Hasson of Kadima. According to Israel's Channel One television, Barak offered to withdraw his support for dissolving parliament if Olmert agreed to to allow his rivals for the Kadima leadership to challenge him in a party vote as early as July.
Since Israeli police launched an investigation last month into more than $150,000 in cash Olmert received from a New York financier, several senior Kadima members have proposed themselves as candidates to replace the prime minister. But the centrist party has not set a date for an internal election.
Olmert, who has denied wrongdoing in the funding case but said he would resign if indicted, this week threatened to fire Labour over Wednesday's bill. But that would deprive him of a majority in parliament, making snap elections a near certainty.
Olmert's spokesman did not return calls for comment on any 11th-hour talks with Labour.
Israel's Channel Two television said centre-left Labour was negotiating with another coalition member, the Orthodox Jewish party Shas, on a possible pact to bring down Kadima together.
Political crises in Israel have, in the past, been deferred to allow the national leadership to deal with major developments in matters of war or peace.
On Tuesday, militants in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets into Israel, breaching a five-day-old truce in the territory in what they called retaliation for the killing of one of their commanders in the occupied West Bank.
"What should be guiding us, and Ehud Barak, is our national responsibility," said Yoram Marciano, a Labour lawmaker who has rebelled at the party's decision to back Wednesday's bill.
"This is a crisis that nobody wants," he said. "And I think the people don't want early elections either."
The next national ballot is scheduled for 2010.
(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
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Sarcastic observation; arab stringers and editors sprinkled as authors and proofreaders in TWO of these news reports shows no BIAS doesn't it?
Herald
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