By Prensa Latina,
Jerusalem : Israel reported today the reopening of its border with Gaza, the day after its foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, considered improbable a peace agreement with Palestine before the end of 2008, as the United States pretends.
A spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense reported that trucos with merchandise once again between Israel and the Gaza Strip, sieged by Tel Aviv ever since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) took power there in June, 2007.
On Wednesday the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, ordered the closing of border stations with that coastal enclave populated by 1.4 million Palestinians with the pretext that a rocket was launched on Israeli territory although it caused no victims.
Violent events, including rocket shooting, were reduced since the enforcement of truce between Hamas and Israel last June 19, despite Israelis have not strictly kept their side of the pact that includes lifting the blockade.
As local news media commented, apparent flexibilization of the Israeli stands refering to Palestinians takes place days before the arrival of US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, next week.
However, the head of Israeli diplomacy discarded Thursday there would be a signing of a peace pact with Palestinians with the support of Washington before the end of this year and the Administration of president George W. Bush is over in January, 2009.
Livni upended US hopes of achieving at all cost a favorable outcome of the until now unsuccessful negotiations launched by Bush at Annapolis last November.
“I think a term (to achieve peace as was set in Annapolis) is important, but more still is the contents and nature of the understanding we can now reach with the Palestinians,” he commented.
According to the Jewish negotiating team, “any attempt to ignore disagreement (between both parts) and not leading to a detailed accord we hope for, could end in clashes, misunderstanding and violence.”
At the same time, he ruled out the return of the over four million Palestinian refugees scattered through several countries and stressed that would modify demographic patterns.
“It cannot agree with the notion of a solution for both states and mines the status of Israel as a Jewish state.”