Posted on 07/08/2006 6:55:32 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
Jul. 8, 2006 4:00 | Updated Jul. 8, 2006 16:50 Olmert rejects Hamas PM Haniyeh's call for cease-fire
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday rejected a cease-fire offer proposed by the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
Olmert won't agree to a truce until terrorists from Haniyeh's ruling Hamas Party free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who they captured nearly two weeks ago, officials in the prime minister's office said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev made comments along the same line Saturday. "Anyone who ignores these two fundamental issues cannot hope to solve this crisis," he said.
The Hamas government on Saturday sent the first signal it is willing to compromise in its two-week standoff with Israel over Shalit.
"If we want to get out of the current crisis, it is necessary to return to calm, on the basis of a mutual halt to all military operations," Cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.
"This is the position of the prime minister (Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas), that everyone return to calm and stop all operations from both sides," he said.
Meretz Chairman MK Yosssi Beilin called on Olmert to accept the cease fire proposal.
Beilin called on Olmert to authorize Egypt to open negotiations with the Palestinian Authority towards a general cease-fire, within which kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit would be released, Kassam rocket and terror attacks would end.
Israel, according to Beilin's proposal, would end its military operations in Gaza, targeted killings, and would release detained Hamas parliamentarians as well as prisoners who were scheduled to be released prior to Shalit's abduction.
Hamas' call came after IDF armored forces operating in and around Atatra in the Gaza Strip returned to Israel, following operations in which four Palestinians were killed. According to Palestinian reports, three operatives were killed by tank shells in the Shajiyeh neighborhood in Gaza City, and a member of the security forces was killed in Zeitun.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885946841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Jul. 8, 2006 15:48 | Updated Jul. 8, 2006 16:53
IDF tanks 500 meters from Gaza city
On Saturday morning, dozens of tanks drove toward Gaza City, taking up positions about 500 meters (yards) from the outlying neighborhoods of Shajaiyeh and Zeitun. The army said the forces were sent to the area to search for tunnels being dug by militants for possible attacks on soldiers.
The air force fired missiles at a group of militants gathered at the outskirts of Shajaiyeh.
Three Hamas gunmen were killed in the area, hospital officials said. Also, a Palestinian, apparently a policeman, died of wounds sustained in earlier fighting.
In northern Gaza, troops pulled back from the town of Beit Lahiya on. Tanks driving through narrow streets had shorn off outer walls of buildings, torn down electricity polls, carved up asphalt. Facades of buildings were marked by bullet holes from exchanges of fire.
Givati soldiers, however, were still operating on the Palestinian side of the Karni crossing to locate and destroy tunnels, as well as on the outskirts of Beit Hanoun.
Maj.- Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Political-Military Bureau, told Israel Radio that the operations in Gaza were planned as rapid strikes, in order to keep the IDF from getting bogged down and becoming a target.
Meanwhile, the Israel Navy was shelling Kassam rocket launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip.
Earlier Saturday morning, in the first operation of its kind, IAF aircraft destroyed a tunnel that Palestinian operatives had dug beneath the Karni crossing. The entrance to the tunnel had been concealed inside a chicken coop.
The IAF carried out four other air strikes in Gaza overnight Friday, targeting terror cells.
On Friday, an IDF spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that the army was shelling Kassam launch sites in northern Gaza. An IAF helicopter also hit two Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza on Friday afternoon, killing both. The strike came after the two had fired a missile at IDF forces.
On Friday, a total of 17 Kassam rockets were launched into the western Negev, falling near a number of kibbutzim, including Sa'ad, Nahal Oz, and Gevim, as well as near Netivot, Army Radio reported.
Two Kassams landed in Sderot. Seven people were wounded when one of the rockets fell in the city's central market. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, and four others were suffering from shock. Three of the wounded were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
In the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, IDF forces killed Tamr Kandil, a senior operative in the military wing of Fatah. Kandil, 22, of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, was involved in several attempts to send suicide bombers into Israel, as well as several shooting attacks in the area.
IDF sources reported that a Paratrooper battalion surrounded the house where Kandil was hiding. According to the report, shots were fired from the house, and IDF soldiers opened fire in response, killing Kandil. There were no IDF casualties in the exchange of fire.
Same old terrorist play book. "Hey, looks like we are getting our butts kicked so let's stop for awhile, well, let Israel stop, we will keep firing rockets and sending suicide bombers over, but otherwise it will be a cease fire!". About time Israel stoppped falling for it.
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