NO GAZA TRUCE DEAL

Israeli envoy returns without Gaza truce deal By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 12, 7:45 PM ET

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip - An Israeli envoy engaging in Gaza cease-fire talks returned without a deal late Thursday, after another day of bloodshed in the coastal territory that included seven Palestinians being killed in a house explosion that Hamas blamed on an accident. When an explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip and killed seven, Hamas blamed Israel and unleashed rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. But the militant group, which has controlled Gaza the past year, later suggested the blast was accidental.By then Israel had carried out an airstrike aimed at a Gaza rocket squad, killing a Palestinian. Two other Israeli military operations in Gaza killed five more militants.Clashes in and around Gaza are putting a strain on Egypt's effort to arrange a truce by acting as a go-between because Israel has no contacts with Hamas, which has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide attacks and rejects the Jewish state's right to exist.Israeli officials said envoy Amos Gilad told Egyptian mediators in Cairo that Israel wants progress toward freeing a soldier captured by Hamas two years ago as well as a commit by Egypt to stop arms smuggling across its border with Gaza.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contacts are supposed to be private, said no agreement was reached Thursday.With violence rising, Israeli government and security officials said Israel is willing to give Egyptian mediation about two more weeks to produce a truce, but warned that the military will be ready to invade Gaza if the effort fails.

Major points of contention remain, most prominently, Israel's demand to link the truce deal to the release of the Israeli soldier who has been held captive in Gaza for two years and a Hamas demand that Israel open Gaza's border crossings.Israel blockaded Gaza a year ago after Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis, violently seized control of Gaza from security forces affiliated with the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.The closure has prevented the vast majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people from leaving and has led to widespread shortages of fuel, electricity and basic goods.After the Gaza house blew up Thursday, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was not operating in the area at the time. We deny any connection to this incident, Maj. Avital Leibovich said.Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said there would be an investigation of the blast and the results would be made public.

The statement was taken as a Hamas acknowledgment that the blast was probably accidental, not an Israeli attack. Dozens of militants have been killed while handing explosives in recent years.The blast shook the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, about a mile from the Israeli border. Cars parked nearby were destroyed and covered with dust, and windows of nearby houses and shops were shattered.

It was a huge explosion, said Majid Abu Samra, a neighbor.

Hamas said seven people were killed, including a 4-month-old girl and a senior aide to the Hamas interior minister. Among the dead were five militants, Hamas said. The owner, Hamas area commander Ahmed Hamouda, was not home at the time of the explosion.Shortly after the explosion, Hamas said it fired a barrage of mortar shells and rockets toward southern Israel in retaliation. Israel's rescue service said a 59-year-old woman was wounded when a rocket struck a home on an Israeli communal farm.Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, issued an angry response, noting the rocket barrage came just a day after Israel publicly endorsed the Egyptian truce effort. It proved that Hamas is committed to violence, terror and murder, he said. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants in a clash in northern Gaza, and Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry said another person was killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said aircraft hit a rocket squad. Late Thursday, three Hamas militants were killed by Israeli artillery fire that hit northern Gaza, Hassanain said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Four dead in blast in Hamas bomb-maker's house Thu Jun 12, 6:02 PM ET

GAZA (Reuters) - An explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least four people, including a baby, in what Hamas called an Israeli air strike and Israel described as an internal blast. The explosion, which also wounded about 25 people, destroyed the two-storey dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area from which militants frequently fire rockets into southern Israel.Hamas said an Israeli aircraft attacked the house belonging to Ahmed Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers. An Israeli military spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement.It was not related to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). There were no IDF operations. It was an internal explosion, an Israeli military spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv.Medical workers said at least four people, including an infant, were killed. Hamouda's fate was not immediately known.The Beit Lahiya massacre was caused by an Israeli strike that targeted a Qassam leader, Hamas said in a statement, referring to its armed wing.On Wednesday, Israel's Security Cabinet decided to give Egypt more time to try to broker a ceasefire under which militants would cease rocket salvoes and Israeli forces would halt Gaza operations.The Security Cabinet said it had instructed the military to prepare for a possible broad operation in the Hamas-controlled territory should truce efforts fail.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Adam Entous)

Gaza militants bombard Israel after deadly blast by Adel Zaanoun Thu Jun 12, 2:48 PM ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel on Thursday after a Hamas commander's house in northern Gaza was blown up in a blast which killed seven people, including a four-month-old baby. The attacks started immediately after the explosion which Palestinian medics said also wounded 51 people, among them women and children, in and around the two-storey building.The Israeli military said nearly 50 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from Gaza following the explosion, which Hamas blamed on the Jewish state despite its denial of involvement.Only yesterday, Israel decided to give a chance to the Egyptian initiative which could have brought calm to the south, the Israeli prime minister's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.The barrage of rockets today shows that Hamas has no interest in calm and is committed to violence, terror and murder.However at meeting on Wednesday, the Israeli security cabinet also ordered the military to make the necessary preparations for a major ground offensive against Gaza if Egyptian-brokered truce talks fail to bear fruit.A senior Israeli defence official was in Cairo on Thursday for a new round of the Egyptian-mediated negotiations.Hamas laid out conditions for a truce with Israel, demanding a lifting of the (Israeli) siege, with a precise timetable for opening the crossing points (out of Gaza) and a list of the categories of products that will enter the Gaza Strip.It is important that the Rafah terminal (between Gaza and Egypt) be part of the project for calm, said Hamas's Gaza leader Ismael Haniya.

The Israelis have been linking the opening of Rafah -- the only outlet for Gaza that does not pass through Israel -- to the freeing of Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas and others in a cross-border raid two years ago.Israel's opposition right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday called for a military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip rather than any truce.The last thing to do is to allow Hamas to prepare for new attacks against Israel through a truce, he told public television. We can not remain hostages to Gaza, a city of terrorists.The Islamist movement Hamas seized power a year ago in the Gaza Strip, an impoverished sliver of land, ousting forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Witnesses and Hamas said Thursday's blast that levelled a house in Beit Lahiya was caused by an Israeli air strike, but the army denied any involvement, saying it could have been an accidental explosion.

The blast caused widespread devastation.

The IDF (Israel army) has no connection whatsoever to the events the Palestinians are describing. Our air force and land forces did not operate at that time, spokeswoman Major Avital Leibowitz told AFP.Hamas's Al-Aqsa television channel said the house belonged to a local commander of the armed wing of the Islamist movement, and added that he was not at home at the time.Many of the victims belonged to one family, said Muawiya Hassanein who heads the Gaza emergency services. We blame this crime on the Israeli occupation, Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said in Gaza City. We are used to Israel not admitting to its crimes.There have been several cases in the past when militants accidentally set off deadly blasts while assembling makeshift explosive devices. Two Gaza militants were killed by Israeli forces earlier on Thursday in operations before the house blast and a clash after the explosion, Palestinian emergency services said. At least 501 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them Gaza militants, have been killed since peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership resumed last November, according to an AFP count. That tally does not include the dead in Thursday's house blast.

Israel's Barak makes move towards early election By Jeffrey Heller Thu Jun 12, 5:10 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel edged closer on Thursday to an early election over corruption allegations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after a key coalition partner voiced support for legislation that would force a ballot. Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that as things stand now the Labour Party he heads would press for a preliminary vote in the Knesset on June 25 to dissolve parliament, unless Olmert's Kadima party acted first to ensure government stability.Under pressure from within centrist Kadima, Olmert met two senior party legislators on Wednesday and instructed them to begin preparations for an internal leadership election, but no date was set for a primary.Barak, a former prime minister, has called on Olmert to step aside in the scandal.Such a move could enable Kadima to regroup around a new party leader, maintain its partnership with centre-left Labour and avoid an early election that opinion polls show Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud would win.The Likud has called for a preliminary vote on June 18 to dissolve parliament. A Knesset spokeswoman said a firm date for the vote -- one of three needed before the proposal is approved -- would be set only on Monday.Even if the legislation passes its first vote this month, final approval could stretch past parliament's summer recess, which begins on August 3 and ends on October 26.Political commentators have been speculating about a November general election should the Knesset be dissolved.By moving slowly, politicians would buy time to await the outcome of a police investigation into suspicions that Olmert illegally received $150,000 from a U.S. businessman over a 15-year period before he became prime minister in 2006.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he termed legal contributions to election campaigns he waged, has said he would resign if indicted.An early election in Israel -- a national vote is not due until 2010 -- would disrupt the U.S.-brokered peace talks it has been holding with the Palestinians on a framework statehood deal that Washington hopes can be reached this year.
(Editing by Charles Dick)

Israel, Syria set for more indirect talks Wed Jun 11, 6:59 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel and Syria were set to hold a new round of indirect peace talks next week, officials said on Wednesday, three weeks after the two neighbours announced the Turkish-mediated negotiations. We will stand by our declaration to have ongoing talks. I expect their resumption shortly, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Olmert's top aides Shalom Turgeman and Yoram Turbowitz would return to Turkey next week to continue the talks.Both officials, nevertheless, declined to disclose any further details on the nature of the talks, which were simultaneously announced by Israel, Syria and Turkey on May 21, after an eight-year freeze.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said earlier this month that direct peace talks with Israel were unlikely before 2009, and added that they also depended on the fate of Olmert, who has been dogged by calls for his resignation over a graft scandal.

BUSH BIDS FAREWELL TO ROME
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Welsh speaker boycotts Israeli ambassador Wed Jun 11, 6:42 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - The speaker of the Welsh Assembly is to boycott a meeting with Israel's ambassador to Britain because of the Jewish state's failure to fulfil its obligations towards Palestinians.

Dafydd Elis-Thomas said he would not meet Ron Prosor at the legislature in Cardiff later this month after his colleague from the nationalist Plaid Cymru party Mohammad Asghar invited all 60 assembly members to the meeting in an email on Tuesday.I am unwilling to accept the invitation to meet the ambassador, because of my objection to the failure of the State of Israel to meet its international obligations to the Palestinian people of the Holy Lands, Elis-Thomas said.The internal invite, marked private and confidential but seen by AFP, added: I would invite other colleagues to (do) the same.A spokesman for Asghar said Wednesday he hoped his good friend would reconsider.As presiding officer, Elis-Thomas, a former MP and member of the upper House of Lords, is required to be impartial but he has been outspoken on a number of issues since the assembly was set up in 1999.In 2006, he said he was ashamed at the lack of ethnic minority representation in the assembly, which has limited powers to set policy in a number of areas, including health and education.Asghar was elected as the assembly's first Muslim and ethnic minority member in May last year.

Elis-Thomas's comments come after Prosor wrote in a newspaper article Tuesday that Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views in recent years, particularly in universities.The British, Israeli and US governments complained in May 2007 when members of the University and College Union voted to back a boycott of Israeli universities due to the occupation of Palestinian territories.The initiative called on British academics to stop writing for journals published by Israeli universities and refuse travel to Israel for conferences. But the union was warned in September that such a boycott would be illegal.

WORLD REPORT TECHNOLOGY 2
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Olmert woes, dwindling time cloud Rice Mideast trip By Arshad Mohammed Tue Jun 10, 3:36 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the Middle East this weekend facing the reality that political turmoil in Israel and the Bush administration's dwindling time may dash hopes of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year.

Analysts said the corruption scandal dogging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dramatically reduced the chances of a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January and could force Rice to consider scaling back her ambitions.So far there are few signs that she is prepared to do so as she leaves Washington on Wednesday on a trip that will take her to Paris for an Afghan donors' conference on Thursday and then to Jerusalem and Ramallah for her sixth visit this year.Rice plans to meet Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to hold three-way talks with their lead negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie.She also is expected to have a three-way meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is a key player in determining how far Israel goes to ease the lot of Palestinians in the West Bank.Despite Olmert's difficulties, the administration has said it will continue to press for a peace agreement this year -- the goal Bush announced at a high-profile peace conference he hosted in November in Annapolis, Maryland.

The question is not about his desire but about his ability, said a senior U.S. official of Olmert's predicament. I'd rather be criticized for an element of romanticism than for an element of neglect.However, Western, Palestinian and Israel officials have all acknowledged privately that Olmert's corruption investigation could trigger new elections, dimming -- if not snuffing out -- the chances of a deal this year.Some analysts said Bush should now concentrate simply on handing over an active peace process to his successor, rather than on striving to produce some kind of a deal that may be impossible to reach given Israel's political uncertainty.They suggested Washington also work to improve conditions in the West Bank by strengthening Palestinian security forces and governing institutions and by pressing Israel to remove roadblocks Palestinians say cripple their economy.

DEAD MAN WALKING

This is what I call the royal handoff, said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator and the author of The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.

Miller said if Bush stepped down with an active peace negotiation and stability on the ground, he could make a case that he left matters better than he found them despite critics' belief that he neglected the issue for much of his presidency.Let the administration say, in one of the great talking point of the decade, We inherited a terrible hand, violence, absence of trust, no negotiations, and we are now passing to our successor a working peace process.Daniel Levy, an analyst at the New America Foundation, said the administration did not yet appear willing to concede defeat, but argued that Israel was simply in no position to conclude a peace deal given the cloud over Olmert.It's not actually helpful to try to force a piece of paper through because the Israeli political system cannot absorb such a development, he said. Politically speaking, fortunately or not, fairly or not, Olmert is a dead man walking.Olmert has rebuffed calls that he resign because of allegations that he took envelopes stuffed with cash from a U.S. businessman. Olmert, who has said he would resign if indicted, and the New York-based businessman have denied any wrongdoing.This is a period of some ambiguity and awkwardness for the United States, said a senior Bush administration official, adding the United States did not wish to do anything that might hint at support for any Israeli faction over another. While acknowledging that Israel's political uncertainty would likely make Israeli politicians reluctant to take bold steps and would frustrate Palestinian negotiators, he said he did not think the U.S.-backed effort was a lost cause. It strikes us as an imperative for both Israelis and Palestinians to try to come to an agreement over a two-state solution, he said. We're not tilting at a windmill.(Editing by David Alexander and Mohammad Zargham)