Olmert: Israel to find new ways to ensure calm in south

By Xinhua,

Jerusalem : Israel will embark on other directives to ensure that calm returns to the south if Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce with militants in the Gaza Strip fails to yield results, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud said on Sunday.


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“Israel wants quiet and full security for southern communities, and if that won’t come to fruition through Egyptian mediation, it will be brought to fruition through other means,” Olmert was quoted by local daily Ha’aretz as saying at the weekly cabinet meeting.

A Hamas official made a similar comment on Sunday, saying that if Israel and Egypt do not arrange to reopen the crossings to Gaza, the Islamist group would consider its “other options,” according to Israel Army Radio.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Egyptian officials are set to resume negotiations later Sunday regarding Cairo’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Major General Amos Gilad, head of Israeli defense establishment’ s political-security branch, arrived in Egypt on Sunday for talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said Ha’aretz.

Despite the efforts, Israel has learned in recent days that the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have rejected the truce proposals put forth by the Jewish state.

Hamas is prepared to accept Israel’s demand that the ceasefire begins first in Gaza, and then in the West Bank, but opposes accelerating the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit — who has been held hostage by Hamas for about two years –as part of the deal.

Israel wants to link Shalit’s release with the opening of the Rafah crossing and implementation of the truce, but Hamas insists that these carry separate price tags.

Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Meshal, said Saturday while in Tehran “if the international community does not initiate step toward breaking the (economic) blockade, we’ll break it ourselves. We insist the (border) crossings be opened, especially the Rafah crossing.”

Israel would agree to opening the crossings for commercial cargo only after the ceasefire has stood the test of time – and apparently only after progress has been made on Shalit’s release.

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