January 17, 2009
ISRAEL is poised to call a unilateral halt to its 22-day-old offensive on Gaza after winning pledges from the US and Egypt.
The US and Egypt have agreed to help prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a proposal at a meeting Saturday night under which Israel would silence its guns even without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinian group which has controlled Gaza since mid-2007.
Under the terms of the proposal, Israeli troops would remain inside the territory for an unspecified period, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity
The Jewish state expected Hamas to halt its attacks as well, the official said, but warned that "if it decides to open fire, we will not hesitate to respond and resume our offensive."
The security cabinet meeting comes amid intense international pressure on Israel to call a halt to the war which has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians, with the UN General Assembly on Friday demanding an immediate and durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
"The (Israeli) security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a unilateral ceasefire at (Saturday's) meeting following the signing of the memorandum in Washington and significant progress made in Cairo," the government official said.
The breakthrough came after Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed an agreement in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under which the United States would assist in preventing smuggling into Gaza, and a top envoy returned from talks with officials in Cairo.
"Olmert was satisfied with the results of the talks in Cairo, which answered Israel's basic requirements for a thorough answer to Israel's demands to halt rocket fire and an agreement on coordination between Israel and Egypt on the opening of the crossings" in Gaza, added the official.
However, although Olmert is in favour of the ceasefire, its approval is not certain as the security cabinet has shown previous divisions over the conduct of the war which was designed to put an end to rockets fired from Gaza.
Even as the stage was being set for a possible end to the Israeli offensive, in which at least 1,188 Palestinians have been killed, including 410 children, the military was staging a fresh wave of deadly strikes on the territory.
At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Friday, including at least 10 people who died when a tank shell slammed into their house in Gaza City during a funeral wake, according to Palestinian medics.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory, three daughters and a niece of a Palestinian doctor working in Israel were killed in an Israeli air strike.
"They were girls, only girls. I want to know why they have they killed them. Who gave the order to fire?" the children's sobbing father Ezzedine Abu Eish said on Israeli television.
Palestinian militants meanwhile fired over 20 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel on Friday, wounding five people, the Israeli military said. Over 700 such projectiles have been fired since the start of the war.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of Hamas's politburo, on Friday told Arab leaders meeting in Doha that the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire that did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders, including into Egypt.
His deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk later told Al-Jazeera television that Hamas would not make any decisions regarding a unilateral Israel ceasefire until its delegation held a fresh round of talks with Cairo on Saturday.
Clamping down on the porous Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of underground tunnels form Hamas's main rear supply route, has been a key Israeli demand for ending the offensive that has also wounded around 5,285 people.
After signing the deal in Washington, Livni told Israeli television that smuggling weapons into Gaza was tantamount to firing at Israel.
"They continue doing this, Israel has the right to respond," she said.
Rice said she hoped the agreement, under which the United States and Israel will step up efforts to stamp out arms smuggling to Gaza, would advance efforts to secure a ceasefire.
She said she hoped for a "ceasefire very, very soon" but could not promise one would be sealed in time for January 20, when President George W. Bush hands the White House over to his successor, Barack Obama.
"We're working ... on as quick a timeline as we possibly can in support of the Egyptian mediation," she said.
The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for 18 months.
ISRAEL is poised to call a unilateral halt to its 22-day-old offensive on Gaza after winning pledges from the US and Egypt.
The US and Egypt have agreed to help prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a proposal at a meeting Saturday night under which Israel would silence its guns even without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinian group which has controlled Gaza since mid-2007.
Under the terms of the proposal, Israeli troops would remain inside the territory for an unspecified period, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity
The Jewish state expected Hamas to halt its attacks as well, the official said, but warned that "if it decides to open fire, we will not hesitate to respond and resume our offensive."
The security cabinet meeting comes amid intense international pressure on Israel to call a halt to the war which has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians, with the UN General Assembly on Friday demanding an immediate and durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
"The (Israeli) security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a unilateral ceasefire at (Saturday's) meeting following the signing of the memorandum in Washington and significant progress made in Cairo," the government official said.
The breakthrough came after Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed an agreement in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under which the United States would assist in preventing smuggling into Gaza, and a top envoy returned from talks with officials in Cairo.
"Olmert was satisfied with the results of the talks in Cairo, which answered Israel's basic requirements for a thorough answer to Israel's demands to halt rocket fire and an agreement on coordination between Israel and Egypt on the opening of the crossings" in Gaza, added the official.
However, although Olmert is in favour of the ceasefire, its approval is not certain as the security cabinet has shown previous divisions over the conduct of the war which was designed to put an end to rockets fired from Gaza.
Even as the stage was being set for a possible end to the Israeli offensive, in which at least 1,188 Palestinians have been killed, including 410 children, the military was staging a fresh wave of deadly strikes on the territory.
At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Friday, including at least 10 people who died when a tank shell slammed into their house in Gaza City during a funeral wake, according to Palestinian medics.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory, three daughters and a niece of a Palestinian doctor working in Israel were killed in an Israeli air strike.
"They were girls, only girls. I want to know why they have they killed them. Who gave the order to fire?" the children's sobbing father Ezzedine Abu Eish said on Israeli television.
Palestinian militants meanwhile fired over 20 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel on Friday, wounding five people, the Israeli military said. Over 700 such projectiles have been fired since the start of the war.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of Hamas's politburo, on Friday told Arab leaders meeting in Doha that the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire that did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders, including into Egypt.
His deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk later told Al-Jazeera television that Hamas would not make any decisions regarding a unilateral Israel ceasefire until its delegation held a fresh round of talks with Cairo on Saturday.
Clamping down on the porous Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of underground tunnels form Hamas's main rear supply route, has been a key Israeli demand for ending the offensive that has also wounded around 5,285 people.
After signing the deal in Washington, Livni told Israeli television that smuggling weapons into Gaza was tantamount to firing at Israel.
"They continue doing this, Israel has the right to respond," she said.
Rice said she hoped the agreement, under which the United States and Israel will step up efforts to stamp out arms smuggling to Gaza, would advance efforts to secure a ceasefire.
She said she hoped for a "ceasefire very, very soon" but could not promise one would be sealed in time for January 20, when President George W. Bush hands the White House over to his successor, Barack Obama.
"We're working ... on as quick a timeline as we possibly can in support of the Egyptian mediation," she said.
The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for 18 months.
Source: The Australian
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