Israel says it will unseal Gaza only if soldier is freed

By Isabel Kershner

Thursday, February 19, 2009

JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet voted Wednesday to make the opening of Israel’s border crossings with Gaza, a central Hamas demand for any long-term cease-fire arrangement, conditional on the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas. The cabinet decision, widely seen as a hardening of the Israeli stance, seemed to dim the prospects for a quick conclusion to the Egyptian-brokered talks for a consolidated truce. But the unanimous vote merely formalized the position that was being articulated with increasing clarity in recent days by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and seemed more focused on expediting a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas for the soldier’s return.

Hostilities flare as Hamas accepts deal

THE NATIONAL

An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed one man yesterday and wounded another, while Palestinian militants fired two rockets into southern Israel, even as Hamas said it had accepted an 18-month ceasefire with the Jewish state.

Details of the Egyptian-brokered deal are expected to be announced as early as tomorrow, senior officials from the Palestinian group told reporters.

Hamas claims accord is close with Israel

Iht

By Ethan Bronner

Friday, February 13, 2009

JERUSALEM: Hamas officials said Friday that an announcement of an 18-month cease-fire with Israel was days away and would include a substantial opening of Gaza’s borders with Israel in exchange for an end to Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities. But a senior Israeli official said nothing had been agreed yet.

Meanwhile, rockets were fired into Israel on Friday, causing no damage or injuries, and Israeli warplanes struck the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, wounding two Popular Resistance Committee fighters.

Israel carries out air strike after bomb kills soldier on Gaza border

Times

James Hider in Jerusalem and David Byers

Israel carried out an air strike on the Gaza Strip today after Palestinian militants killed a soldier in a bomb attack, as the fragile ceasefire between the two sides stood on the brink of collapse.

The strike, targeting a Hamas militant riding a motorbike in the southern town of Khan Younis, came after Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel “cannot accept” the bomb attack, which took place as the soldier patrolled the Kissufim crossing with Gaza.

The incident threatened to destroy the calm that has largely prevailed since Israel and the Islamist group ended a three-week conflict on January 17.

Israeli and Palestinian die in first breaches of Gaza ceasefire

Times

James Hider in Jerusalem

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza appeared to be crumbling today as Palestinian militants set off a bomb beside an Israeli patrol on the Gaza border, reportedly killing one soldier.

Palestinian officials also said that Israeli troops afterwards shot and killed a 27-year-old man and wounded two others near the tense border, across which Israeli tanks and troops swarmed this month in a ground invasion of the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Israel withdraws its troops from Gaza

Times

Jenny Booth

Israel said today that it had pulled all its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip, the densely-populated Palestinian territory where it has waged three weeks of intensive war.

The announcement came 13 hours after Barack Obama was inaugurated as US President, and appeared to be an attempt to smooth Israel’s relations with the new leader of its powerful ally.

‘Your sons have won the battle against Israel’

Matt Bradley, Foreign Correspondent

The National-UAE

GAZA CITY // Mohammed al Sherafy, a Hamas parliamentarian, climbed onto a pile of sand to speak to a crowd gathered for the funeral for four young men yesterday. He could not have been addressing a more receptive audience.

“My message to the families of the martyrs is that your sons have won the battle against Israel,” Mr Sherafy told the residents of Beit Lahiya, one of several Gaza City neighbourhoods devastated during more than three weeks of Israeli aerial bombings and the subsequent ground invasion. “Congratulations to those who have launched rockets into Israel. As for Tzipi Livni, who said ‘I will change the situation in Gaza,’ I’m telling her: ‘You and your government will go and Hamas will remain.’”As dawn broke over Gaza City yesterday morning about 24 hours after Hamas called its ceasefire, the crack of shellfire could still be heard off the Mediterranean coast and the hum of surveillance drones was audible throughout the day.

Gaza needs a unified Arab response

Editorial

The National

Both Israel and Hamas have claimed victory with their respective unilaterally declared ceasefires, but it is difficult to see what they gained after 22 days of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Despite the assault, Hamas’s ability to launch rockets persists. As if to drive the point home, it launched 19 rockets into Israel while the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, was announcing the ceasefire.

Editorial: Why Kuwait summit is vital

Arab News

WITH Gaza still smoldering, bodies still being pulled out of the rubble, Israeli troops still there and the cease-fire far from certain, many in the Arab world and beyond can be forgiven if they have initial difficulties understanding why Arab leaders are meeting at present in Kuwait to discuss economic issues and wonder whether this is the moment to discuss plans for an Arab free-trade area by 2015 and an Arab common market by 2020.

Troops may pull out before inauguration

The National-UAE

JERUSALEM // Israel hopes to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States tomorrow, Israeli officials said.

Israel made this plan known last night at a dinner with European leaders who came to the region in an effort to consolidate the fragile ceasefire that Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers declared on Sunday. The pullout could only be carried out if militants continue to halt their fire, the officials said.