http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058679.html
Last update - 01:10 26/01/2009
Egypt demanding years-long truce in Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
Tags: Hamas, Egypt, Gaza
Talks between senior Hamas members and Egyptian officials in Cairo on a
new cease-fire arrangement for the Gaza Strip continued late Sunday night amid
an apparent disagreement over the length of the truce.
The Egyptians are demanding a truce of a number of years' duration, while
Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Ayman Taha, said the group would agree to a
cease-fire of no more than between one year and 18 months. Another Hamas
spokesman, Ismail Radwan, said a long-term cease-fire "kills" the right to
resistance by the Palestinians.
Hamas and Israeli officials have also indicated that much of the
discussion has centered on control of the border crossings in and out of Gaza.
Hamas wants the blockade on Gaza lifted. Israel wants assurances that weapons
smuggling into the Gaza strip will stop. "Hamas listened to the Israeli
proposal presented by [Defense Ministry official] Amos Gilad, and with it a
proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a
counterproposal of one year only,"
Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence
officials.
The Hamas delegation met with the heads of Egyptian intelligence on
Sunday who transmitted to them Israel's positions. Jerusalem has not yet
clarified what stance it had presented.
Meanwhile, Taha reiterated the group's calls for a lifting of the
blockade imposed on the impoverished and devastated Gaza Strip by Israel and
Egypt as a condition for the truce. "[Hamas] called for a complete lifting of
the blockade and an opening of all the crossings," Taha said.
Hamas proposed to Egyptian mediators that European and Turkish monitors
be present at the border crossings, but rejected the presence of Israeli
monitors, saying Israeli monitoring was "a large part of the problem,"
according to Taha.
Asked if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces would be present at
the crossings, Taha said: "Hamas is the existing government in Gaza."
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction in
fighting in 2007. Egypt has ruled out opening the Rafah crossing in the absence
of the Palestinian Authority and European Union observers.
Commenting on the talks, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan,
told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that Hamas was unwilling to
alter its positions to Israel's benefit.
"The Israelis must understand that they will not achieve through politics
what they failed to do militarily," Hamdan said.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in late December with the
declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks on its southern communities. About
1,300 Palestinians, at least 700 of them civilians, were killed during the
22-day offensive, while Israel put its death toll at 10 soldiers and three
civilians.
Hamas: No reconciliation with Fatah until it ends Israel peace talks
Hamas official Hamdan also said Sunday that Fatah movement must end peace
negotiations with Israel before any reconciliation talks can take place.
The remarks were bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas,
which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West
Bank.
Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan - a close ally of Hamas
political leader Khaled Meshal - said that the group welcomed Palestinian
dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on a resistance program to
liberate territory and regain rights.
He also demanded that the PA end security coordination with Israel, and
maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.
"Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear
and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the [Israeli]
occupation, release [Hamas] prisoners and later end negotiations [with Israel]
because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan.
"It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance
program to liberate the [occupied] territory and regain rights," he added.
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Hamas had suggested
representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah
crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Israel has been allowing some supply convoys into Gaza, though its
borders remain largely closed. The Israel Defense Forces says more than 125
trucks a day - on some days nearly 200 - have entered Gaza since fighting ended
on January 17th, but aid workers say the numbers are not enough.
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