In Gaza campaign, Israelis see a temporary success By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jan 25, 4:49 pm ET
SDEROT, Israel – Sderot's open-air market is bustling for the first time in a month, thanks to newfound quiet following Israel's punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Many residents of this rocket-scarred town say they see the operation against Hamas as a long-overdue military success — but also believe the good times will be short-lived.There is no victory here, only quiet, said Eli Asayag, 55.Sderot is less than a mile from Gaza, a frequent target for the homemade rockets from militants there over the past eight years. Thousands have exploded in this town of 20,000, traumatizing residents and damaging many houses and businesses. Six people have been killed and a few dozen wounded.The satisfaction here with the Israeli military's performance is coupled with the despair of continuing to live in the shadow of violence. People see the recent offensive as a corrective after the inconclusive, frustrating war against Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006, and a stirring example of national unity.But they also see it as a successful round in a match many expect will continue indefinitely.If this brings us a half-year of quiet or a year, it's good. If it brings us 10 years, it's great. But we never forget that Gaza will always be our neighbor, and as long as Hamas is in control there, we will be in danger, said David Buskila, the town's mayor.Hagit Didi, a mother of three, left Sderot six months ago because of the rocket fire, relocating to the nearby town of Netivot — only to find herself in danger there when the range of Hamas rockets increased.There won't be quiet here for long. How can you defeat people like this? she said. Her 8-year-old son has grown up with the rockets and has never slept anywhere but with her in her bed, Didi said.
During the fighting, Shimon Elmaliach, 41, who sells women's boots in the market, took his wares to Tel Aviv, where women bought boots they didn't need simply because he was from Sderot.They did it to express solidarity, he said. Our unity — that was our victory.During the fighting, Israelis out of rocket range volunteered to take in people displaced by the violence, and there was an outpouring of support for Israeli troops.In Nahal Oz, a communal farm a few hundred yards from the Gaza border fence and within eyesight of Gaza City suburbs, residents say the years of rocket fire are slowly killing their community. They are not confident the offensive will effect real change.Two Israeli-made Merkava tanks stand between Nahal Oz and Gaza, pointing their cannons into the Palestinian territory. Several dozen tanks remain in rows in a staging ground nearby in case the week-old cease-fire falls apart.We very much wanted this operation, not because we are warmongers but because we have lived with this reality for years, said Yemima Barnea, who is in charge of bringing new families to the community. Her job has become virtually impossible.She said the Israeli offensive was very successful.But if we ask if it had a real change in our ability to look ahead to a better future, that's hard for us.
Still not everyone is pessimistic.
Ofer Shmerling, who runs a restaurant nearby, calls the operation's results excellent. Until a few days ago, he displayed a sign reading, We won.Hamas realized it had pushed Israel too far, he said. Israel's Arab enemies, especially the Hamas allies and Lebanese militants of Hezbollah, were too afraid to do anything more than make angry speeches, he said. When the Jews go crazy, everyone else goes quiet.
Egypt, Hamas discuss lasting truce with Israel by Hala Boncompagni – Sun Jan 25, 4:06pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – A Hamas team met Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Sunday in a bid to clinch a lasting truce in the war-battered Gaza Strip, days after an Israeli negotiator held similar talks in Cairo.But even as Egypt pushed on with its diplomatic drive, Hamas vowed to keep arming Gaza militants and an Israeli official warned that a Hamas leader will be unable to move freely if an Israeli soldier is not freed.Egypt closed its Rafah crossing point with Gaza for fear that Israel might renew its attacks on the smuggling tunnels that criss-cross the border, security officials said.Egypt's state MENA news agency said Suleiman and the Hamas officials discussed Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a (permanent) truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue.Hamas and Egyptian officials were tight-lipped about the talks, held behind closed doors and attended by members of the group's powerful Syria-based politburo and a delegation from Gaza.
A Hamas spokesman in Damascus however reiterated to AFP that the Islamist group was willing to observe a one-year truce with Israel on condition that the Gaza blockade is lifted.Suleiman, Egypt's pointman for Palestinian-Israeli affairs, met separately with Hamas and Israeli officials during the 22-day assault to push for acceptance of an Egyptian plan to end the onslaught.On Thursday, he met Amos Gilad, who last year was Israel's negotiator in talks that led to a six-month Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas that expired on December 19.As the Cairo talks began, Hamas's Lebanon representative Ossama Hamdan vowed the group would continue to arm.Warplanes, aircraft carriers and satellite technology will not be able to monitor the entry of weapons through Gaza's tunnels, he told a Beirut rally.Things might get difficult, but we will do whatever it takes to continue our resistance against Israel.Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 to halt rocket attacks from Gaza and stop arms trafficking from Egypt, and has warned it will strike again if Hamas is allowed to rearm.Hamas has also threatened to resume fighting if Israel does not reopen the crossings into Gaza, where 1,330 Palestinians were killed during the onslaught, almost a third of them children. Thirteen Israelis were also killed.
Israel imposed a crippling blockade after the Islamists took control of Gaza in a bloody showdown with the Fatah followers of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June 2007.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak proposed on January 6 a three-point ceasefire plan, including terms to end smuggling across the Egypt-Gaza border.Egypt insists that only contraband goods are trafficked through the tunnels while weapons are delivered to Gaza by sea.Israel believes otherwise and has boosted pressure on Egypt to stem the flow of weapons.Israel considers that Egypt is in a position to confront the matter of arms smuggling and to put an end to it, Gilad said on Saturday. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is to hold talks with newly appointed US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday before heading to Washington for talks with members of the new administration on implementing a January 16 agreement on stemming the arms trafficking. A US embassy military attache in Cairo toured the Gaza border area on Sunday on what an embassy official insisted was regular, routine and previously scheduled visit.
EU foreign ministers called on Sunday for divided Palestinian factions to unite so Gaza border crossings can be opened to aid. At talks in Brussels, they also urged Arab nations to use their influence with Hamas and Fatah. The reunification of the Palestinian people with a single voice to speak to them, to speak for the West Bank and for Gaza is absolutely essential, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters. On Wednesday, the Europeans met separately with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Egypt is also seeking to end the protracted Hamas-Fatah feud, which sharpened after the Islamists seized Gaza 18 months ago. Palestinian faction leaders were gathering in Cairo ahead of reconciliation talks later this week. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected in the Middle East on Monday for a four-nation trip aimed at helping bolster the Gaza ceasefire, his spokeswoman said. It will probably start tomorrow (Monday) afternoon and run until about Thursday, she said.
Israel minister warns Hamas PM over Shalit Sun Jan 25, 8:02 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Senior Israeli minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday warned Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, that he would not be able to move around freely if an Israeli soldier remained captive in the territory.As long as Gilad Shalit does not see daylight, Haniya will not see daylight either, said Mofaz, who is transport minister and a member of Israel's powerful security cabinet.As long as Gilad Shalit is not free, Haniya will not be able to move freely in the streets of Gaza, Mofaz said on public radio, referring to a conscript seized by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.I tell Hamas leaders -- do not again make a mistake when it comes to us, do not try and harden your position before negotiations on a (prisoner) exchange involving Shalit, he said.The Israeli operation in Gaza has created better conditions to achieve the freeing of Gilad Shalit, he said a week after Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead killed more than 1,300 Gazans.Israel and Hamas have negotiated for months via Egyptian mediators over a Palestinian prisoner release in return for Shalit.
US-Saudi ties under threat: Saudi prince Sat Jan 24, 4:09 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – The close relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is under threat after Washington supported Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip, a senior Saudi prince warned on Saturday.Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former top diplomat and intelligence chief, told CNN television that the US needs to change its tune and exert more pressure on Israel or face a deterioration in its relations with the Middle East.He called Israel's three-week assault on Gaza, which Palestinians say killed more than 1,300 people in the densely populated enclave, barbaric and a catastrophe.Prince Turki said the new US administration of President Barack Obama must also press Israel to accept an Arab peace plan or lose the Arab world's confidence.I think this is one of the issues that makes the relationship between the Arab world in general and Saudi Arabia in particular threatened when it comes to dealing with the United States, he said.The relationship that has kept America and the Arab world going for the last 17 years is in danger.He said former president George W. Bush callously and unforgivably gave Israel a green light to do everything that they wanted to do in Gaza without restraint.He said he had hopes for Obama, but needed to see real steps on the ground, including Washington and Israel agreeing to negotiate with Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza but which the US labels a terrorist organisation.
We need to see facts on the ground change. We need to see rhetoric change. We need to see presence on the ground.President Obama can do something and gain the confidence and support of the Arab and Muslim nations by showing that he has done things on the ground and not simply expressed a wish for that.Prince Turki, who has been ambassador to both London and Washington and now oversees a prominent research centre, stressed that he was not speaking for Saudi Arabia.But diplomats and analysts consider his views reflect important currents within the Riyadh government.
He spoke a day after writing in an opinion piece in the Financial Times daily that Saudis may join jihad if Washington does not put more pressure on Israel, including condemning its Gaza offensive.If the US wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep its strategic alliances intact -- especially its special relationship with Saudi Arabia -- it will have to drastically revise its policies vis a vis Israel and Palestine, he wrote.He wrote that the Gaza war united the region's Muslims, and pointed to a call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Saudi Arabia to lead a jihad against Israel.If pursued, he said, such a campaign would create unprecedented chaos and bloodshed in the region.So far, the kingdom has resisted these calls, but every day this restraint becomes more difficult to maintain.
Egypt can end Hamas arms-smuggling: Israel Sat Jan 24, 2:02 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Egypt can end arms smuggling from its territory into the Islamist-run Gaza Strip, top Israeli defence ministry official and negotiator Amos Gilad said on Saturday.Israel considers that Egypt is in a position to confront the matter of arms smuggling and to put an end to it, Gilad told Channel Two television, adding that the country 's willingness to work against arms-smuggling is unprecedented.
The Egyptians understand that Hamas is a threat not only to Israel but to them as well. Hamas is working in concert with (the Egyptian opposition movement) the Muslim Brotherhood and with Iran, he added.Gilad, a reserve general in the Israeli arm and political advisor to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, discussed the matter in Cairo on Thursday with Egypt's intelligence chief, General Omar Suleima.On Sunday, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in its three-week war on Hamas, which it said was aimed at putting an end to rocket fire from densely populated Gaza on the south of the country and to end the arms smuggling.On January 6, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak proposed terms for a ceasefire that would include putting an end to smuggling through tunnels linking Egypt and Gaza.Gilad has been meeting with the Egyptians in an effort to underpin the ceasefire in a war that cost the lives of more than 1,300 Palestinians and of 13 Israelis.Separately, Gilad echoed another senior official's comments that the war had improved the prospects for freeing Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas and other militants in 2006.The Israeli offensive has created new opportunities for obtaining his liberation, Gilad said, without elaborating.Earlier, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai had said the operation created basic conditions that will allow us to approach the discussions differently ... I hope that this operation has helped us.
Hamas says it's back in control of the Gaza Strip By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jan 24, 1:42 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Bearded Hamas activists on Friday delivered an envelope with five crisp $100 bills to a veiled woman whose house was damaged during Israel's invasion of Gaza, the first of promised relief payments by the militant group.In another part of the territory, a bulldozer cleared rubble and filled in a bomb crater where a week before a top Hamas leader had been killed in an Israeli air strike.Since a truce took hold this week, ending Israel's three-week onslaught, Gaza's Hamas rulers have declared victory and gone out of their way to show they are in control.They have pledged $52 million of the group's funds to help repair lives, the money divvied up by category. The veiled woman received emergency relief money for her two-story home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.Hamas, which is believed to be funded by donations from the Muslim world and Iran, said the emergency relief would include $1,300 for a death in the family, $650 for an injury, $5,200 for a destroyed house and $2,600 for a damaged house.More than 4,000 houses were destroyed and about 20,000 damaged, according to independent estimates.We are in control and we are the winner, Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri declared this week, after attending the funeral of four Hamas gunmen.But Israeli strikes destroyed all of Hamas' security compounds and most government buildings. Its top two leaders, strongman Mahmoud Zahar and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, have not yet appeared in public.Israel claims to have killed more than 700 Hamas fighters, while the militants say they lost about 280 armed men, the vast majority members of the police force killed in surprise bombings on the first day of the war.But beyond the losses, Hamas is wrestling with a fateful choice — whether to keep fighting and drive Gaza deeper into poverty and suffering or moderate in exchange for open borders and a measure of stability.Gaza had buckled under a tight border closure by Israel and Egypt for 19 months, suffering increasing shortages, and the war only heightened the misery.On Thursday, hundreds lined up with blue gas canisters along the main north-south road, near the town of Deir el-Balah, after word spread that cooking gas was being distributed.
Hamad Abu Shamla, 24, waited for seven hours, only to leave empty-handed. The unemployed carpenter — he lost his job to the blockade — said he last had cooking gas five months ago, and that he, his wife and four children have mostly been living on canned food and bread since then.He said he had already promised his family a steaming plate of couscous for lunch, and was sad to return home and disappoint them.
We build our hopes on God, he said, when asked about his future. We don't know what to do. We are empty-handed ... and we don't know what to do.Hamas would need huge sums to fund reconstruction — some $2 billion according to first estimates — but the international community for now refuses to funnel the money directly to the militants.Yet Hamas has rebuffed proposals that it set up a unity government with its moderate West Bank rivals, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It is also cool to demands that Abbas' troops or foreign border monitors be deployed to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza.Israel and Egypt, which have kept Gaza's borders closed since Hamas seized the territory by force in June 2007, say they won't open the gates unless Hamas relents. Before the war, Hamas was able to soften the pain of the blockade because weapons, cash and commercial goods were coming in through hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel says the shipments included explosives and rockets Hamas has been firing at southern Israel. Israel bombed many tunnels during the war, though reporters have seen smugglers resume operating in some and rebuild others. For now, most Gazans seem to rally behind Hamas, united in their anger at Israel, though there are some murmurs of discontent. Hamas fought the Israelis. No one else did, said Samir Summad, 66, whose four-story house was damaged during an air strike last week that killed Said Siam, a top Hamas leader. At the time, Siam was in the house next door, and the massive bomb flattened the building and dug a deep crater into the sandy ground. On Friday, new cinderblocks were already stacked at the scene and a bulldozer pushed aside the remaining rubble.
Summad would not say whether he resented Siam for putting the neighborhood at risk. Siam was visiting a brother at the time of the strike. If I had known he was there, I would have run away, said Summad, adding that five of his family members were wounded in the attack. Summad said a government inspector came to his house to assess damage, including blown-out windows. Hamas officials say the need open borders to rebuild Gaza. Yet they are evasive about how they hope to lift the blockade without easing their demands. Hamas officials scoff at the idea of giving a foothold to Abbas, who has been increasingly sidelined, in part because he was perceived by many people as too soft on Israel during the war. We have a legitimate government in Gaza that came through democratic choice, said a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, referring to Hamas crushing victory over Abbas' Fatah movement in 2006parliament elections. Yet Hamas is taking a risk by sticking to a hard line that will likely keep Gaza's borders closed. Popular support could erode quickly, since most Gazans have no more reserves to withstand a continued closure. Even before the war, the vast majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people were poor. The blockade wiped out tens of thousands of job, most factories closed for lack of raw materials and water, power and sewage systems became increasingly erratic. Shehadeh Shehadeh, 39, a Gaza City pastry chef who learned his trade in Israel a decade ago, said he voted for Hamas in 2006 but said he believes the group must become more pragmatic. He sold his last black forest cake a month ago and can't bake anymore because he's run out of ingredients available only in Israel. The windows of his apartment were blown out during the war, in an airstrike on the nearby Hamas government complex. Shehadeh, like many Gazans, would like to see Hamas and Fatah reconcile and wants open borders. I want to stop and breathe for a bit, and live, he said. "Until when will we keep saying, we want resistance and we want war?
France deploys frigate, helicopter to stop Gaza smuggling Fri Jan 23, 6:21 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – A French frigate carrying a helicopter was on its way Friday to international waters off the coast of Gaza to participate in a mission against arms trafficking in the Palestinian territory, officials said.The deployment was ordered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in cooperation with Israel and Egypt as part of immediate actions to fight against the smuggling of weapons towards Gaza, his office said in a statement.The French warship will conduct surveillance in international waters off Gaza, in full cooperation with Egypt and Israel, the French presidency said.The statement appeared to indicate that the ship would be restricted to surveillance operations and will not board boats suspected of carrying weapons.
Cooperation with Israel and Egypt appeared to imply that France would share intelligence with the two countries, which could conduct searches of suspect ships in their respective waters.The French military said late Friday that the warship named Germinal, which was deployed off Lebanon as part of a UN mission, would reach its destination in the coming hours.The ship carries a helicopter and radars that can track nearby boats, said Captain Christophe Prazuck.Germinal will act as a maritime control tower that detects all ships within its radar range and allows the tracking of their movements in a radius of several dozen kilometres, Prazuck said.
The warship was also on a mission to prevent weapons smuggling to Lebanon by sea.
The Panther helicopter will collect precise information on the identity and characteristics of passing ships.France, Britain and Germany have offered to help prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip as part of measures to shore up a fragile truce following a 22-day offensive on the territory controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to provide naval support.The French president's office said the priority was to consolidate the current ceasefire, through humanitarian action, the total halt of arms trafficking towards Gaza, the durable reopening of border crossings, reconstruction and Palestinian reconciliation.It also called for tight coordination with the United States and European partners to propose additional actions in the fight against weapons smuggling through maritime and land routes.Sarzkoy reiterated his call for the quick reopening of the Rafah border crossing under European supervision, the statement said.The French president's office said 2009 must be the year of the signing of the peace agreement.
Arab leaders criticize Canada's support of Israel Fri Jan 23, 5:49 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – Arab ambassadors have complained to Canada's top diplomat about his unbalanced Mideast policies, which they said Friday favor Israel and disregard the plight of Palestinians.We've encouraged Canada to take a more balanced position, which takes into account the realities on the ground and does not side with one party, Amin Abou-Hassira, the Palestinian Authority's representative in Ottawa, told AFP.Canada's position now is unbalanced, he said.The 15 envoys, including Abou-Hassira, met with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon earlier this week to ask him why his official statements "do not reflect reality and place blame for the war in Gaza entirely on Hamas's rocket-firing into Israel, he said.Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government, since its election in 2006, has been unabashedly pro-Israel.Ottawa echoed the Jewish state in saying Hamas provoked its latest war with Israel by targeting Israeli civilians with crude rockets. And a minister blamed Hamas for 40 civilian casualties at a UN school bombed by Israel.The Palestinian movement's home-made rockets, which are more cries of hardship in the face of occupation and a heartless blockade than weapons of war, killed 13 Israelis in eight years, the diplomats told Cannon, according to a statement obtained by AFP.In 23 days, Israeli shells, tanks, aircraft, and warships have killed close to 1,500 Palestinians.The Palestinian health ministry lists more than 1,300 dead and 5,000 wounded during Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead, while on the Israeli side three civilians and 10 soldiers died in combat and rocket strikes and dozens were wounded, according to official figures.Canada, during Harper's administration, was the first to suspend aid to the Palestinian government after the election of Hamas in 2006.
Canada is also the only country to vote against a UN Human Rights Council resolution in Geneva to condemn Israel's offensive in Gaza.he foreign ministry declined AFP's request for comment.
Europe eyes troops, solutions for Gaza border By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 23, 3:15 pm ET
PARIS – French troops, Turkish monitors, British ships, German tunnel detectors, European radar equipment — officials say all these options are being weighed as they try to cement the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.The key to a solution is finding a way to choke off smuggling through tunnels under the slender border between Gaza and Egypt while opening the aboveground crossings to travel and trade. The eight-mile frontier is at the heart of secretive diplomacy across Europe and the Middle East this week.Dozens of European monitors and experts are ready to deploy immediately, but not until Egypt — and preferably someone on Hamas' side of the border — agree.Securing that border means it could open up again to aid and trade that have been cut off since it was closed by Egypt when Hamas took over Gaza in 2007. Opening the frontier would mean removing a key grievance that Hamas militants used to justify the frequent rocket attacks on Israel. Recent rocket attacks provoked the 23-day Israeli offensive that ended in a cease-fire last weekend.The road to a safe border may be a long one. Potential obstacles include divisions within Europe over how robust an international border control presence should be, Western discord over how to deal with Hamas, and Egypt's resistance to a foreign military presence on its soil.In his first presidential speech on the Mideast, President Barack Obama offered no clear policy shift, reaffirming U.S. backing of Israel's right to self-defense, while also urging continuing diplomatic efforts. He did signal more active efforts, though, by assigning former Sen. George Mitchell as a special envoy for the Mideast.
In Europe, diplomats are trying for some agreement, even temporary, that would assure Israel that Hamas will not use the cease-fire to rearm.The diplomats will have to move fast. In the border town of Rafah, Gaza smugglers have been repairing their tunnels and bringing in food, fuel and other goods barely four days after Israel stopped its bombardment.Smugglers estimate there were about 1,000 tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border before Israel's offensive, some used to bring in weapons and others for basic goods.Israel wants an armed force — one that will shut down tunnels after spotting them — while the Palestinians and many in Europe do not.
Germany has offered to send experts in tunnel detection to train Egyptian authorities to shut down this activity. A four-man German team is ready to go to Egypt to determine what kind of equipment is needed, Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning said.German officials stress that such help is not meant to undermine Egypt's control of its borders. Germany will not take on any enforcement role, Manning said.France, which has taken the European lead on diplomacy in Gaza, says that may not be enough and has suggested a European peacekeeping force for the region.France is pressing other European allies and Egypt to consider an armed border force, possibly under European Union or United Nations auspices, said a French official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.Neither the U.N. nor NATO is making any commitment to monitoring or peacekeeping for now.A key hurdle is the possible embarrassment of Egypt appearing unable to patrol its borders.Egypt may be holding out on the nature of a foreign presence on its soil as a way to negotiate for increasing its own troops in Sinai; their numbers are limited by the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty. For now, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and senior officials say a foreign presence on Egyptian soil is a red line they are not willing to cross.Europe is eager for a more active U.S. role, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner noting Wednesday that the Americans were absent from most major diplomatic action during the Gaza campaign. He called on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to urge the immediate opening of border passages. The U.S. promised last week to supply detection and surveillance equipment, along with logistical help and training, to monitor Gaza's land and sea borders, but it has made no commitment about border monitors or guards. One idea is to revive and expand an EU border mission at Rafah that was suspended in 2007. About 30 unarmed EU monitors from the mission are ready to return, and the EU is mobilizing dozens more, just in case. If all sides agree, the mission could be expanded to three other points on the Israel-Gaza border, at Erez, Kerem Shalom and Qarni, another French diplomat said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. The EU monitors had no enforcement power. One thing under discussion is giving the force a stronger mandate, including possibly allowing monitors to intervene to prevent potential conflicts, the diplomat said.
France, Britain and Germany last week offered to provide technical devices to control arms smuggling through the tunnels, which could mean drones or ground-penetrating radar. Beyond the EU, a special Turkish peacekeeping unit outside Ankara is ready to deploy to the border if needed, Turkish officials have said. But Turkey is officially insisting it is only talking for now about sending monitors, not armed peacekeepers. Turkey enjoys, to some extent, the trust of both Israel and Hamas. It has also offered to mediate between Hamas and the moderate Palestinian movement Fatah led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas. A Turkish official said there is an implicit agreement that the corridors must be reopened for trade and travel for the cease-fire to hold. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of Turkey's discussions. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also offered Britain's Royal Navy to help interdict arms shipments bound for Hamas.
Diplomats are hoping for progress Sunday when EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels with their counterparts from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.
But the crucial question is whether Hamas would go along.
The Islamic fundamentalist group is under pressure to improve the quality of life in Gaza. It insists that because it won Palestinian elections in 2006, it should have a role monitoring the crossings. However, the EU and the U.S. consider Hamas a terrorist organization, and it is certainly distrusted by both Israel and Egypt.
Reviving the EU mission could put EU monitors in direct contact with Hamas officials, an option no diplomat is eager to discuss. That would also mean indirect recognition of the Hamas-run authority in Gaza, until now unthinkable for the international community. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michaels in Cairo; Michael Fischer in Berlin; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels; and Greg Katz in London contributed to this report.
