June 19, 2008
Israel Agrees to Truce With Hamas
By ISABEL KERSHNERJERUSALEM — Israel has agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas for the Gaza area starting Thursday, officials here said
Wednesday.
“Israel has accepted the Egyptian proposal,” said David Baker, a spokesman for the Israeli government. “We hope this will lead to a cessation of the
constant rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities.”
Israel is expected as part of the deal to ease the economic blockade of Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic group Hamas. Israeli government
officials emphasized that sanctions would be lifted in accordance with the security situation on the ground.
Egyptian and Hamas officials announced on Tuesday that a deal had been reached but Israel delayed its confirmation until it received final clarifications
from Cairo.
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, was dispatched to the Egyptian capital to finalize the deal on Tuesday night. On his return
Wednesday morning, he told Israel Radio that the cease-fire arrangement did not constitute a peace agreement with Hamas, but a practical
understanding aimed at achieving calm.
An unidentified senior Egyptian official told the state news agency MENA on Tuesday, “The Palestinian and Israeli sides have accepted the first stage
of a reciprocal and simultaneous period of calm, starting in the Gaza Strip, from 0600 on Thursday.”
Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, confirmed at a news conference that a truce was about to come into effect and that it would last for
six months.
Maintaining a note of caution, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that it was “difficult to determine how long” an agreement would last.
It also seemed likely that hostilities would continue up to the last minute. On Wednesday morning militants in Gaza fired several rockets and mortars
into Israeli territory and shot at Israeli engineers working near the border fence. Nobody was wounded, but Israel temporarily closed down the Nahal
Oz border terminal, from where fuel is transferred into Gaza, because of the fire, an Israeli army spokesman said.
On Tuesday night, militants launched up to 10 rockets at Israel. Several fell in open areas around the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel had carried out three airstrikes in Gaza against what the military described as “terrorist operatives.” Six Palestinian militants
were killed, according to medical officials in Gaza.
Hamas and a smaller, more radical group, Islamic Jihad, each said they reserved the right to respond.
Islamic Jihad said four of the dead belonged to its military wing. But the Israeli military listed three of those killed as members of the Army of Islam, a
small, shadowy organization inspired by Al Qaeda. The military identified one of the dead as Muataz Dagmush, 29, a senior member and a brother of
the leader of the group.
The Army of Islam, along with Hamas, was involved in the capture of an Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Corporal
Shalit is still being held in Gaza.
Israel now seeks to halt the rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that has killed four Israeli civilians this year and has caused widespread trauma and
disruption of life in Israeli towns and villages close to the Gaza border. In addition, Israel has insisted that any deal include an end to Hamas’s military
buildup in Gaza, and movement toward the release of Corporal Shalit.
Hamas wants an end to the frequent Israeli military strikes and incursions into Gaza, and an easing of the economic blockade that Israel has imposed
since Hamas took over the area a year ago.
Mr. Zahar, the Hamas leader, said Israel would open the commercial crossings as soon as the truce came into effect. Two weeks later, he said, Egypt
would host talks aimed at reopening the Rafah crossing on its border with Gaza. Mr. Zahar suggested that the Shalit case would be dealt with
separately.
Israel, like the United States and the European Union, classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization and rejects any direct dealings with it. Israeli officials
are therefore likely to portray any deal as an informal understanding in which Israel responds to calm with calm, rather than a negotiated agreement.
“Words are important, but deeds are more so,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister. But he did not rule out further flexibility
toward Hamas.
“If indeed there will be a total cessation of fire from Gaza, an end of the Hamas arms buildup and movement on Gilad Shalit’s case, then there will be
a very new situation,” Mr. Regev said.
The Israeli government has come under increasing domestic pressure to chose either a broad military thrust aimed at stopping the rocket fire or an
agreement for calm. Egypt has been mediating the matter for months. Last week, Israel’s Security Cabinet opted to pursue the truce.
Many Israelis fear that Hamas will use a period of quiet to regroup. But army officials have repeatedly warned that a military offensive could prove
bloody and inconclusive.
Past understandings with the militant organizations have dissolved within months, with the smaller groups’ never having been brought under control.
This time Israel is insisting that Hamas halt all fire from Gaza, and will hold it responsible for actions by smaller groups.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza.
June 19, 2008
Israel Open to Deal With Lebanon on Disputed Land
By ETHAN BRONNER and ROBERT F. WORTHJERUSALEM — Israel offered on Wednesday to start direct peace talks with Lebanon, saying all issues would be negotiable, including a tiny piece
of Israeli-held land on the countries’ border that Israel has long argued does not belong to Lebanon but that the Lebanese say is theirs.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Israel over the weekend and made a surprise stop in Lebanon on Monday. On her trips, she spoke to
both the Israeli and Lebanese governments about Washington’s desire to find a solution to the land dispute as a catalyst for solving bigger issues in the
region, including strengthening the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a senior Israeli official said, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert agreed to this.
However, in the past the Lebanese government has consistently opposed negotiations with Israel, saying the Israelis must first return the disputed
piece of land.
Last week, after Mr. Olmert raised the issue of peace with Lebanon, the Lebanese government reiterated its opposition and said Israel must in
addition return Lebanese prisoners and provide maps on mines and cluster bombs left over from the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the
Lebanese guerrilla group.
Hezbollah, which considers the disputed piece of land to be Lebanese, gained decisive new powers within Lebanon’s government in a political
agreement reached last month, making it even less likely that pro-Western forces within Lebanon could push for an agreement on the land.
The offer of talks with Lebanon comes amid intense regional diplomatic activity, including the planned start on Thursday of a six-month truce in Gaza
between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, which the Israeli government confirmed on Wednesday, and the end of a second round of
indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria for a comprehensive peace treaty. Israel is also very close to a prisoner swap with Hezbollah.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr. Olmert, said the prime minister had spoken of his desire to start talks with Lebanon in an internal Israeli meeting and
had decided to make that desire public.
Since Syria has such strong influence in Lebanon, Mr. Olmert argued that the talks with Syria should lead logically to discussions with Lebanon, Mr.
Regev said.
The disputed piece of land that will be under negotiation is known as the Shabaa Farms.
When Israel withdrew from the occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, the United Nations Security Council stated that the withdrawal was
complete despite its holding onto the disputed area because Shabaa, the United Nations said, was part of the Syrian Golan Heights occupied by
Israel.
But Lebanon and Hezbollah say the land is Lebanese and Syria has not contradicted them. Moreover, Hezbollah has used Israel’s hold over Shabaa
as a pretext for keeping its men under arms despite United Nations resolutions calling for the disarming of all Lebanese militias.
Hezbollah says that as long as part of the Lebanese homeland is occupied, it needs its weapons because the national army is weak.
But the West, especially the United States and France, wants to reduce the power of Hezbollah, a client of both Syria and Iran, and has been looking
for ways to strengthen the pro-Western government of Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah officials made clear that they viewed Israel’s offer as part of an effort to disarm the group. “If they really want to give us
back our land, they can withdraw and implement the security council resolutions,” said Nawar Sahili, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s Parliament,
referring to a United Nations resolution that calls for the Shabaa issue to be resolved.
Next month, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to brief the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1701, which
ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. In that report, it is likely that he will announce a revised or clarified stand on the sovereignty of
Shabaa.
For Israel, the main concern in Lebanon is Hezbollah’s increasing power. Israeli military officials say that Hezbollah has far more rockets and far
deadlier ones today than it did two years ago when the two fought a month-long war after Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border to kidnap and kill
Israeli soldiers.
It is unclear whether Shabaa and Hezbollah have been discussed by Israeli and Syrian officials negotiating in their talks, which are being mediated by
Turkey.
But the Israelis and Syrians say their latest round of talks went well and there is now the possibility that Mr. Olmert and Syria’s president, Bashar al-
Assad, will find themselves at a table together in France next month. Both men have accepted an invitation to a regional conference there on July 13
on immigration, security and the environment, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France has said they will be seated at the same table.
Resolution 1701 calls on Israel to provide to the United Nations “all remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel’s possession.” Israel says it
has done so and international officials who monitor the issue confirm it.
They say most of the mines have been cleared using the maps. Cluster bombs are not mentioned in the resolution but are a source of great concern for
the southern Lebanese. There, the international officials say, Israel has been less helpful in providing maps and data but it may well be because the
bombs were distributed less systematically and Israel has less precise information.
Israel worries that if it yields Shabaa, Hezbollah will come up with another reason why it must keep its arms. Indeed, there are other outstanding
issues, including the village of Ghajjar on the border, of which Israel occupies about half.
Ethan Bronner reported from Jerusalem, and Robert F. Worth from Beirut, Lebanon.
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