 Officials in the Israeli prime ministerÂ’s office reacted coolly on Wednesday to an indirect approach by the Hamas leader in Gaza offering talks for a hudna truce. he offer was relayed through an Israeli reporter, Sleman al-Shafhe, of IsraelÂ’s Channel 2 television station. On the main news broadcast on Tuesday night, Mr. Shafhe said Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, had called him earlier in the day and sought to convey a message to the Israelis.
According to Mr. Shafhe, Mr. Haniya said he had the will and the ability to stop the rocket fire directed at Israel from Gaza, on condition that Israel stopped the killing of Palestinians there and lifted the economic blockade of the strip.
| Of course Haniya can't and won't stop Islamic Jihad, et al., from rocketing Israel, so the offer is meaningless. |
On Wednesday, Mr. Shafhe said in an interview that Mr. Haniya had said that he would have “no problem” negotiating with the Israeli government on these issues, with an eye toward reaching a mutual truce.
Mr. HaniyaÂ’s call followed a series of Israeli military strikes that killed at least 10 13 Palestinian militants in Gaza between Monday night and Tuesday morning. |
Mr. HaniyaÂ’s call followed a series of Israeli military strikes that killed at least 10 Palestinian militants in Gaza between Monday night and Tuesday morning, in a concerted effort to suppress the rocket fire. Eight of those killed were from Islamic Jihad, which has been responsible for most of the recent rocket fire, and included a top commander of the groupÂ’s military wing who had been specifically targeted by Israel.
Two others were from Hamas, which has mainly limited itself to firing shorter-range mortar shells at the border crossings and at Israeli border communities in recent months. Hamas fired off scores of rockets in May, when the last shaky cease-fire with Israel broke down. |