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Israel hamas agree to cease fire { June 19 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html
June 19, 2008
Israel Agrees to Truce With Hamas
By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — Israel has agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas for the Gaza area starting Thursday, officials here said Wednesday.
“Israel has accepted the Egyptian proposal,” said David Baker, a spokesman for the Israeli government. “We hope this will lead to a cessation of the constant rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities.”
Israel is expected as part of the deal to ease the economic blockade of Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic group Hamas. Israeli government officials emphasized that sanctions would be lifted in accordance with the security situation on the ground.
Egyptian and Hamas officials announced on Tuesday that a deal had been reached but Israel delayed its confirmation until it received final clarifications from Cairo.
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, was dispatched to the Egyptian capital to finalize the deal on Tuesday night. On his return Wednesday morning, he told Israel Radio that the cease-fire arrangement did not constitute a peace agreement with Hamas, but a practical understanding aimed at achieving calm.
An unidentified senior Egyptian official told the state news agency MENA on Tuesday, “The Palestinian and Israeli sides have accepted the first stage of a reciprocal and simultaneous period of calm, starting in the Gaza Strip, from 0600 on Thursday.”
Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, confirmed at a news conference that a truce was about to come into effect and that it would last for six months.
Maintaining a note of caution, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that it was “difficult to determine how long” an agreement would last.
It also seemed likely that hostilities would continue up to the last minute. On Wednesday morning militants in Gaza fired several rockets and mortars into Israeli territory and shot at Israeli engineers working near the border fence. Nobody was wounded, but Israel temporarily closed down the Nahal Oz border terminal, from where fuel is transferred into Gaza, because of the fire, an Israeli army spokesman said.
On Tuesday night, militants launched up to 10 rockets at Israel. Several fell in open areas around the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel had carried out three airstrikes in Gaza against what the military described as “terrorist operatives.” Six Palestinian militants were killed, according to medical officials in Gaza.
Hamas and a smaller, more radical group, Islamic Jihad, each said they reserved the right to respond.
Islamic Jihad said four of the dead belonged to its military wing. But the Israeli military listed three of those killed as members of the Army of Islam, a small, shadowy organization inspired by Al Qaeda. The military identified one of the dead as Muataz Dagmush, 29, a senior member and a brother of the leader of the group.
The Army of Islam, along with Hamas, was involved in the capture of an Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Corporal Shalit is still being held in Gaza.
Israel now seeks to halt the rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that has killed four Israeli civilians this year and has caused widespread trauma and disruption of life in Israeli towns and villages close to the Gaza border. In addition, Israel has insisted that any deal include an end to Hamas’s military buildup in Gaza, and movement toward the release of Corporal Shalit.
Hamas wants an end to the frequent Israeli military strikes and incursions into Gaza, and an easing of the economic blockade that Israel has imposed since Hamas took over the area a year ago.
Mr. Zahar, the Hamas leader, said Israel would open the commercial crossings as soon as the truce came into effect. Two weeks later, he said, Egypt would host talks aimed at reopening the Rafah crossing on its border with Gaza. Mr. Zahar suggested that the Shalit case would be dealt with separately.
Israel, like the United States and the European Union, classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization and rejects any direct dealings with it. Israeli officials are therefore likely to portray any deal as an informal understanding in which Israel responds to calm with calm, rather than a negotiated agreement.
“Words are important, but deeds are more so,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister. But he did not rule out further flexibility toward Hamas.
“If indeed there will be a total cessation of fire from Gaza, an end of the Hamas arms buildup and movement on Gilad Shalit’s case, then there will be a very new situation,” Mr. Regev said.
The Israeli government has come under increasing domestic pressure to chose either a broad military thrust aimed at stopping the rocket fire or an agreement for calm. Egypt has been mediating the matter for months. Last week, Israel’s Security Cabinet opted to pursue the truce.
Many Israelis fear that Hamas will use a period of quiet to regroup. But army officials have repeatedly warned that a military offensive could prove bloody and inconclusive.
Past understandings with the militant organizations have dissolved within months, with the smaller groups’ never having been brought under control.
This time Israel is insisting that Hamas halt all fire from Gaza, and will hold it responsible for actions by smaller groups.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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