By KUNA,
Gaza : Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has held a meeting with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman in Jerusalem, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
During the meeting Monday, Olmert told Suleiman that Israel would not accept an Egyptian proposal for a truce with militants in the Gaza Strip unless it included the issue of arms smuggling and the release of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
Olmert told the visiting Egyptian envoy during their meeting in Jerusalem that the proposal could not be adopted in its current form.
He said that the issue of arms smuggling in particular would distinguish between a temporary truce and sustainable calm. The prime minister asked Suleiman to pass along this message to Hamas officials, it said.
Suleiman arrived in the region early Monday to promote Cairo’s proposal for the ceasefire. He first met Army Chief Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv followed later by the meeting with Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.
After their meeting, Barak said that Israel would not be able to avoid a wide military operation in the Gaza Strip, unless Palestinian militants ceased firing rockets and carrying out “terror attacks” on Israelis, the Israeli daily said.
“Israel will have to take broader action in the Gaza Strip if the firing of Qassam rockets and mortar bombs does not stop,” he told Suleiman.
Barak told Suleiman that the truce deal should include the release of Shalit, who has been held captive in the Gaza Strip since June 2006, calling for a halt of the alleged smuggling of weapons from Egypt to Gaza.
He also told Suleiman that Israel would continue to “reserve the right of freedom of action in the West Bank to ensure the security of Israeli citizens”.
For his part, Suleiman said following his talks with Barak that he had “high expectations” that a ceasefire deal could be reached between Israel and Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip.
Suleiman is in Israel for a series of high-level meetings on the outcome of recent talks between representatives of Egypt and Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.