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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Egypt sources: Hamas agrees to link Shalit deal to opening of Gaza border |
| 2009-02-09 |
| Hamas has acceded over the past few days to the Israeli demand to link the opening of the border crossings to the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Egyptian sources told Haaretz on Sunday. This allows progress toward a cease-fire, by creating a connection between the opening of all crossings by Israel, completion of a prisoner swap and Shalit's release. Egyptian sources told Haaretz cautiously that they were "very optimistic" about making progress toward a deal in the near future. However, they said it could not be known when there would be a breakthrough. According to the plan Egypt is promoting, Israel would open the crossings, albeit not totally, when a cease-fire is reached. The crossings would operate at 80-percent capacity, which would allow a large quantity of merchandise to pass into the Gaza Strip, as Hamas is demanding. However, Israel still insists on the right to prevent certain materials from entering the Strip - including cement, iron and other items. Hamas is believed to want just these materials to come in, to begin rebuilding the thousands of homes destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces during Operation Cast Lead. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Dream on, RIC. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-02-09 12:02 |
| #1 I really hope that if Israel makes this deal, it is conditioned on Gilad Shalit being returned in good health, not in a coffin or as a bag of bones. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-02-09 06:30 |