Okay. Shall we set the over/under?
Hamas spokesman said Tuesday that his was committed to an Egyptian-mediated truce deal with Israel set to go into effect Thursday. Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas would commit to the "zero hour" declared by Egypt. An official Egyptian statement released earlier Tuesday said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday at 6 a.m.
The MENA agency report cited an unnamed high-level Egyptian official as saying that both sides "have agreed on the first phase" of an Egyptian package to end the violence in the Strip. It said the first phase was a "mutual and simultaneous calm" in the Gaza Strip which would start Thursday morning. Egypt hopes that the two sides will exert all efforts to bring the calm to a success," the agency quoted the official as saying. A senior Palestinian Authority official confirmed that the agreement would go into effect on Thursday.
Israeli officials declined to confirm a deal, but voiced "cautious optimism" and said Israel's negotiator in the truce talks was rushing to Cairo. Government spokesman Mark Regev would also not confirm or deny a deal. "What is important is not only words but deeds," Regev said. "If there is a total absence of terror attacks from Gaza into Israel and if there is an end to arms buildup in Gaza Strip and movement on the hostage Gilad Schalit that will indeed be a new reality." Defense officials, however, said they expected negotiations on Schalit to begin on Sunday, a tacit admission that a truce was in the works.
Earlier Tuesday, during a session of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC), IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said that Israel was on a "collision course" with Hamas and that he adopted the stance of intelligence officials, who believed that a truce would be short and fragile.
Smart man...
"The IDF will respect a cease-fire but is also getting ready for a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip," Ashkenazi added. IDF's Research Division Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz had told the FADC that in his estimation, Hamas intended to continue smuggling weapons into Gaza, irrespective of a truce, and that it would continue working to bolster terror infrastructure and use the cease-fire as a chance to regroup and rearm.
Meanwhile, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the truce would consist of three stages and Palestinian sources told the Arabic daily that the cease-fire would be in place for six months at first and would later include the West Bank as well.
According to the report, the first stage of the cease-fire would be implemented once Israel opens the Karni and Sufa crossings. During the second stage, which would start a week later, Israel would remove certain restrictions on the goods which are allowed into Gaza. The third stage, set to start a week later, would include discussions on a new mechanism of operating the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
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