Israel says no truce without release of captured soldier
JERUSALEM —
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Saturday that Israel would not agree to any truce with the Islamist Hamas movement without the release of an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants in 2006.
“The position of the prime minister is that Israel won’t reach any arrangement on a truce before the release of Gilad Shalit,” Olmert’s office said.
Egypt has been struggling to mediate a lasting truce between the two sides since a massive three-week war in Gaza was halted by separate ceasefires on Jan 18 that have since been strained by tit-for-tat exchanges of fire.
One of the conditions demanded by Hamas is that all the crossings into the enclave be opened, bringing an end to the Israeli blockade imposed when the Islamist group seized Gaza in 2007.
Hamas has demanded that the release of Shalit—captured by three militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid—be negotiated as part of a separate prisoner exchange involving hundreds of people held in Israeli jails.
“There is no relationship between the two files,” Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu said, referring to the truce and Shalit. He added that the negotiations would continue as certain issues had not yet been resolved.
Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman has been leading separate negotiations with Israel and Hamas and has said efforts were under way to draw up a list of Palestinian prisoners that might be released in exchange for Shalit.
While Hamas has demanded an end to the blockade, Israel has insisted that will happen only when Hamas releases Shalit.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum accused Israel of “backtracking” on the talks by demanding an open-ended agreement and stepping up attacks on the group’s Gaza enclave.
“Israel has demanded a long-term, open-ended truce and not an 18-month truce as had been previously established,” he said.
The two sides have been struggling to reach a formal truce in the wake of the Israeli offensive launched in December that killed some 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis and left vast swathes of the impoverished territory in ruins.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds at southern Israel since the end of the war and the Jewish state has carried out several air strikes targeting suspected militants and smuggling tunnels.
On Saturday, the Israeli army said a longer-range Grad-style rocket fired by Gaza militants had evaded its early warning system and struck the seaside town of Ashdod, 38 kilometers north of Gaza.
In a separate incident a roadside bomb exploded near an Israeli army patrol along the border without causing any casualties, the army said.
The military branch of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bomb in a statement and said that the Al-Qods Brigades destroyed an Israeli vehicle, but the army denied the claim.
The rocket was believed to have been fired on Friday evening, as militants launched shorter-range rockets and a mortar round, prompting a series of Israeli air strikes that killed one militant and wounded nine other people.
Last week Israel held general elections in which right-wing parties—which have vowed tough action against Hamas in Gaza—made major gains, casting further doubt on the truce talks.
The Islamist group—which won 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections but remains blacklisted as a terror group in the West—seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Wire reports
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20 Comments
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suebe36d
Israel sustained by arms industry? Hamas by oil money? Roots of all evil?
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proxy
I don't think Israel's demand is unreasonable. Seems rather fair minded.
What will be the response of the West if the new Israeli government contains extremists that urge ethnic cleansing? Will the same restrictions that were applied that were imposed on the elected Palestinian government that was compose of Hamas members?
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smithinjapan
Hamas demands an end to the blockade, and Israel declares that will only happen when their man is returned. I don't think Israel's request to have the soldier returned before a truce is declared is unreasonable. However, I think they have to at the very least LIMIT the blockade and open up a little more first. Once Hamas releases Shalit (IF, I should say), the Israeli's could very well once again renege and simply put the Palestinians even further under lock and key, with Hamas having just given their only leverage away. There need to be assurances, and those assurances have to be mediated by outside parties.
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adaydream
Well I think we have grounds for agreements. Let's get to agreeing. < :-)
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smithinjapan
adaydream: Good idea! I hope whomever wins the election (once it's cleared up, that is), is not too far Right to try and make progress instead of war.
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SuperLib
...and some of us hope Hamas won't just be Hamas..
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rajakumar
Killing business, in middle east no truce zone will not get less with no truce.
Pharoah/Hitler like unmerciful ways is root of lack of truce and peace in region.
Only via many unbroken truce can there be more peace and less casualties for palestinian arabs/Arabs allies, and their arch rivals in future decades.
Power misuse and abuse via wars-intifadas by the politicians should be avoided ,to prevent diversion of attention of innocent people of region towards peace progress.
Solution for peace is in hands of people of region,they need to overhaul their mentality-thinking to present times .
The peaceful progressive living mentality like elsewhere in world can come to region with change of mentality-thinking via more modernisation of people of region.
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illsayit
Hamas's lot want to have 2 different agreements. One where the Israel soldier is swapped for ....hundreds of people, regular citizens? Shalit must be someone special. How did he get caught so? Why was he on the front line? Maybe he wanted to be caught because he knew that this would create leverage?
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wuzzademcrat
What a contrast - the culture of life in Israel and the culture of death in "Palestine".
Israel risks all for the life of one young soldier.
Hamas use innocent children as human shields.
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smithinjapan
SuperLib: "...and some of us hope Hamas won't just be Hamas.."
I hope so, too, but it's not like the conflict is one-sided, and I hope Israel's willing to lay off for a change and negotiate instead of simply dropping bombs and locking doors.
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smithinjapan
wuzza: "Israel risks all for the life of one young soldier."
That's a bit mellow-dramatic. Israel's not risking anything except losing a little pride. If they get the kid back, and then actually try to improve the situation instead of helping aggravate it, THEN I'll be impressed. What's more, you're once again lumping Palestinians in with the Hamas government, as though all of them are an evil blight on humanity, and when that is just not the case.
Oh, and you can't call Israel the 'culture of life' when they just slaughtered heaps of Palestinian civilians after ZERO Israelis were killed in the lead-up to it.
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Sarge
"Shalit - captured by three militant groups"
It took three militant groups to capture one Israeli soldier.
I wonder if Shahlit still has all of his limbs/extremities, or his sanity...
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smithinjapan
sarge: "I wonder if Shahlit still has all of his limbs/extremities, or his sanity..."
Certainly valid concerns. Has the guy been seen or heard of since being taken? I mean in terms of proof he's still alive.
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SuperLib
Me too, buddy, but I'm especially concerned about Hamas not being able to do anything other than wage war and use civilians as targets and for protection.
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SuperLib
I believe the Palestinians have delivered handwritten notes from him to show that he is still alive. He has to be taken care or else the Palestinians won't get the ransom for their hostage.
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smithinjapan
SuperLib: Thanks for confirmation. I expected as much -- else why would Israel keep dealing? -- but had not heard anything either way.
As for Hamas waging war and what not, I agree. However, until BOTH sides calm down and try to talk instead of using all the bombast and actual bombs, both are going to have solid support by people who are bitter towards 'the enemy'. If Israel can actually make serious attempts to carry out reform and bring about a better relationship and Hamas STILL continue to be a$$es, then they'll lose more and more of their support base, which unfortunately grew exponentially during Israel's last tirade.
I realize the onus SHOULDN'T be on Israel, but it has to be in the face of what they're up against. But it has to be genuine.
At least the fact that they're TALKING about how to talk is a decent sign, instead of how things were going a month ago.
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SuperLib
Is that an ASSUMPTION on your part? It goes against what I've been READING.
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AlfGarnett
Why does Israel make ridiculous conditions?
I reckon they want to continue attacks to make Gaza unliveable like. I mean, it's only 1 soldier not 100!
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adaydream
If it wasn't for the one soldier, Israel would find something else to bend Gaza over a barrell and attempt to screw the hell out of it. It makes no difference what it is, since they have the military might, gosh Israel can extract this as a condition and extract that as a condition and still never open up the border.
Trust Israel? No. < :-)
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SuperLib
Pretty cool.
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