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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel says will give Gaza truce talks a chance |
| 2008-06-12 |
| Israel said on Wednesday it would support efforts by Egypt to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip but instructed the army to prepare for possible military action in the Hamas-controlled territory if mediation failed. The decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet to hold off militarily for now followed Hamas's release this week of a hand-written letter by Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants two years ago. But it came against a backdrop of escalating violence in which Israeli forces on Wednesday killed four Palestinians in the coastal enclave, including a 9-year-old girl. Israel has been pressing for progress on the Shalit case and an end to Hamas weapons smuggling as conditions for a truce that would aim to stop Gaza rocket attacks and Israeli incursions. Hamas, which has demanded Israel ease its Gaza blockade in return for calm, said the Security Cabinet decision was "not serious" because of Israel's threat of a large-scale operation if its conditions were not met and truce talks collapsed. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has backed the Egyptian mediation effort, plans to return to the region this weekend to try to spur peace talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Those talks have been marred by disputes over Jewish settlement building, violence in the Gaza Strip and a corruption scandal that threatens to force Olmert from office. |
| Posted by:Fred |