ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE

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Hamas says it's reached cease-fire with Israel By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer JUNE 17,08

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday said they have reached a long-awaited cease-fire with Israel meant to end months of Palestinian assaults on Israeli border towns and bruising Israeli retaliation. The announcement came shortly after Egypt, which has been trying to broker the truce for months, said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday. Israel refused to confirm a deal, but said a new reality would take hold if Palestinian attacks end.In a last-minute jolt, Israeli aircraft attacked three targets in the southern Gaza Strip. One of the airstrikes destroyed a car, killing six militants inside.A large crowd gathered around the car's smoldering remains, and a puddle of blood was visible on the asphalt. Gaza militants then fired four mortar shells at Israel, the first of the day, the military said. No one was hurt.Hamas officials accused Israel of trying to undermine the truce, but said they would not let the violence derail the Egyptian efforts.We are going to commit ourselves to the start time that Egypt is going to declare regarding the calm, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. However, the group's television station said the movement would respond to any Zionist aggression, underscoring the delicate situation.Egypt's powerful intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, has been meeting separately with Israeli and Hamas officials for months in hopes of brokering a truce.

Israel has been seeking a halt to rocket attacks launched from Gaza nearly every day, an end to Hamas' weapons buildup, and the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for two years.Hamas, meanwhile, wants an end to Israel's military activity in Gaza and the lifting of an Israeli blockade that has caused widespread destitution in the already impoverished coastal strip.In Washington, the State Department declined to confirm reports of a truce, but said it was supportive of efforts to bring calm to Gaza and southern Israel while insisting that Hamas remained a terrorist organization.We believe that establishing calm in Gaza and elsewhere is a good thing and we're supportive of Egyptian efforts and other efforts to achieve this, deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.But saying you have a loaded gun to my head but you are not going to fire it today is far different than taking the gun down, locking it up and saying you're not going to use it again, he said. Even if this is in fact a true report, it hardly takes Hamas out of the terrorism business.The state-run Egyptian news agency MENA cited an unidentified high-level Egyptian official as saying both sides have agreed on the first phase of an Egyptian-mediated package to end the violence in Gaza.It said the first phase would be a mutual and simultaneous calm in the Gaza Strip beginning at 6 a.m. Thursday.

An Egyptian official told The Associated Press that if the area is quiet for three days, Israel would begin to open Gaza's border crossings to let more humanitarian supplies into the area. A week later, Israel would allow in additional goods.The official said in a final phase Israel would consider reopening Gaza's border crossing with Egypt. The Rafah crossing is the main route for Gaza's 1.4 million people to leave the area. Israel and Egypt closed the crossing in June 2007 after Hamas violently seized control of Gaza, a move that has confined the vast majority of Gazans inside the coastal strip for the past year.The deal is meant to last for six months, he said, and includes the possibility of extending a truce to the West Bank, where Israeli regularly conducts arrest raids targeting militants.A Hamas official said the Rafah deal would be connected to the release of the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Schalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid two years ago. Israel has balked at Hamas' demand for a release of hundreds of militants held in Israeli jails. The Egyptian and Hamas official both spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not permitted to go on the record with the information. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev would not confirm or deny a deal. What is important is not only words but deeds. If there is a total absence of terror attacks from Gaza into Israel and if there is an end to arms buildup in Gaza Strip and movement on the hostage Gilad Schalit that will indeed be a new reality.A Hamas official said talks on Schalit would begin after the initial three days of quiet. Israeli defense officials said they expect negotiations on the soldier to begin on Sunday, an apparent confirmation of the truce's conditions.

Israel's chief negotiator, Amos Gilad, was suddenly dispatched Tuesday evening to Egypt. Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist, and the cease-fire is expected to include other Palestinian groups. Khaled al-Batch of the Islamic Jihad, a small Iranian-backed group responsible for much of the rocket fire, said his faction would be committed to this calm as much as the occupation is committed.Gaza militants have been bombarding southern Israel with rockets and mortars for seven years. The rate of fire increased after Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005 and stepped up further last year after Hamas wrested power from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has responded with pinpoint air and ground attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians, many of them civilians. It has also imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, letting in only limited amounts of humanitarian aid, restricting fuel supplies and widening already rampant unemployment. Ending the economic sanctions by opening Gaza's crossings with Israel and Egypt has been a major Hamas demand in the cease-fire talks. Although the Rafah crossing lies on the Gaza-Egypt border, Europeans monitoring the passage require Israeli security clearance to operate. That clearance has not been given since Hamas took over Gaza. Much skepticism has surrounded the talks, and not only because past accords — most recently, a November 2006 deal — have broken down fairly quickly. Israel is suspicious of Hamas' motives, especially since the militant group has declared it would take advantage of any lull to rearm. Israel also is reluctant to legitimize Hamas' rule in Gaza through a truce agreement. Hamas rejects the existence of a Jewish state and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings. But with the Israeli government under heavy domestic pressure to halt the rocket fire, the choices were a truce or a broad invasion of Gaza. Israel has been reluctant to launch an offensive in Gaza, fearing heavy casualties in the crowded urban environment. Associated Press Writer Salah Nasrawi contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.

TRUCE BETWEEN ISRAEL-HAMAS
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Hope and doubt over truce across Israel-Gaza border By Rebecca Harrison and Nidal al-Mughrabi JUNE 17,08

NIR OZ, Israel/GAZA (Reuters) - For Yossi Atzili, a truce with Hamas Islamists is the only way to stop mortar bombs from the Gaza Strip whizzing across the border and smashing into his paint factory in Israel. Farmer Yankele Cohen disagrees. Peering across his potato fields at Gaza's mosques and dormant factories, he argues that an imminent ceasefire, announced by Egyptian mediators on Tuesday, is premature and says Israel must cow Hamas with force.

We are living a Russian roulette, the 73-year-old told reporters who were visiting the rocket-hit region on Monday with Israel's government spokesman.A truce will just be the silence before the storm.The ceasefire is set to start on Thursday. But many analysts tend to concur with Israeli officials who say it may be short-lived and there is deep skepticism among people on both sides who believe a truce may only serve the short-term political interests of their enemies.In Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh heralded a return to normal life. But ordinary Palestinians were caught between doubt that the truce would last and hopes a deal would end deadly Israeli air strikes and ease an Israeli-led blockade that has deepened hardship in the Hamas-run enclave.We are keen to have calm because we want things to improve, said Eyad al-Louh in the city of Gaza. But he was far from optimistic: Maybe it will be quiet for a day or two but there will be no lasting calm.

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Cross-border rocket and mortar fire have killed three Israeli civilians this year. In the same period, more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza, over a third of them civilians, have died in air strikes and raids which Israel says target militants.Six militants were killed in raids on Tuesday and Hamas's allies in Islamic Jihad launched rockets into Israel.Israel has pursued Egyptian-brokered efforts to end the violence and ease the blockade, although Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, enmeshed in a corruption scandal and facing domestic pressure for tougher action, has threatened to use more force.By agreeing to a truce, Israel hopes to stem international criticism of its blockade of Gaza, while exerting pressure on Egypt to do more to stop arms smuggling into the territory.A truce is also a public relations boost for Hamas, which is trying to curb discontent in Gaza since it seized control a year ago, and boost its international standing.Many around the Israeli border town of Sderot and in the Gaza Strip, simply want the violence to stop.

Atzili, 64, points to the big dent in the side of a paint factory where he works at the Nir Oz kibbutz. A mortar fired from Gaza killed one of his workers here earlier this month.The best way is always sitting and talking, Atzili said at the factory, which lies a few hundred meters (yards) from the Gaza border, not far from the Palestinian town of Khan Younis.In war, there are no real winners.
(Editing by Matthew Jones)

US withholds comment on Israel, Hamas JUNE 17,08

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House Tuesday refrained from commenting on reports that Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement have agreed to begin a Gaza truce in two days, saying it was awaiting confirmation and details. Egyptian mediators earlier said in Gaza City that the deal was reached after months of negotiations to try to halt bloodshed in and around the impoverished territory.

I have seen news reports on that, I haven't seen anything official yet, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.We really want to see details of any kind of agreement and what the views are of people in the region before we comment on it, Fratto added.

Syria to join Israel at Mediterranean summit: French FM Tue Jun 17, 11:49 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be joining Israel's leader at a summit to launch a new Mediterranean Union in Paris next month, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday. The Syrian president will be there, sitting next to, at the same table, as the Israeli president, Kouchner told parliament.

Israel and Syria on Monday wrapped up a second round of indirect talks in Turkey and agreed to hold more meetings in July.But Kouchner did not confirm reports that a meeting could be held in Paris between Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the sidelines of the July 13 summit.We welcome the fact that the Syrians are talking to the Israelis. On that day, it will be possible for them to do that if they want to, he said.The last round of Israeli-Syrian negotiations broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981, a move not internationally recognised.President Nicolas Sarkozy has invited Assad to attend the July 13 summit to launch the new grouping of countries of the Mediterranean rim and to attend the Bastille Day military parade.The president has moved to restore high-level ties with Syria that were strained over charges of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, a friend of former president Jacques Chirac.After the latest round of Syrian-Israeli indirect talks in Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said both sides had pronounced themselves extremely satisfied with the level of progress.The two days of discussions involved Turkish mediators shuttling between a hotel containing the Syrian negotiating team and another housing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's top advisors, Shalom Turjeman and Yoram Turbowitz.Turkey is acting as facilitator and Turkey is trusted by both of these countries, said Babacan.As long as we see the opportunity for peace we are determined to continue the process. Of course the will of both parties is very important.Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday publicly called on Syria to enter direct talks, citing the example of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who forged a peace deal with the Jewish state.Assad said earlier this month that direct peace talks with Israel were unlikely before 2009 and depended on the fate of Olmert, who has been dogged by calls for his resignation over a graft scandal.

Fatah officials on first visit to Gaza in a year Tue Jun 17, 8:45 AM ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) - For the first time in a year, a delegation of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party travelled to the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday. But it remained unclear whether the trip would entail a meeting between officials of the secular Fatah and Hamas, which have been at loggerheads since the Islamist movement seized power in the territory a year ago.We will meet with any active power in this country and with any party that wants to meet with us to discuss any issue, Hakmat Zeid, heading the delegation, told reporters in Gaza City.Fatah and Hamas officials said however there were no firm plans for the factions to meet.There has been no preparation until now for talks between the Fatah delegation and Hamas, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

The delegation intends to clarify the initiative of president Abu Mazen (Abbas) to restore Palestinian unity, said Zeid.The delegation planned to meet with Gaza-based Fatah leaders and representatives from other Palestinian groups, officials said.The two main Palestinian factions have been bitterly divided since Hamas seized power in the impoverished coastal strip a year ago after routing Fatah-led security forces in a week of bloody street battles.But relations began to thaw earlier this month when Abbas called for national dialogue without insisting that Hamas first return Gaza to his control.Zeid said that Abbas very much wants to come to Gaza and will very soon, God willing, though he did not provide any further information.Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organisation despite its 2006 victory in parliamentary elections and have refused to deal with any Palestinian Authority that includes the group.

More indirect Israel, Syria talks in July: Turkey Tue Jun 17, 7:37 AM ET

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Israel and Syria agreed this week to hold new rounds of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey in July, Turkey's foreign minister said on Tuesday. Israel and Syria concluded a second round of indirect peace talks on Monday and agreed to continue the negotiations, though not face-to-face for now, officials said.Yesterday and the day before the negotiations went very successfully and more importantly the calendar was set for the next two meetings which will be held in July, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a news conference after EU-Turkey talks in Luxembourg.(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; editing by Mark John)