Barak: Gaza Will Escalate Beyond Anything We Have Seen

Source: Al Manar TV, 12-03-2008
"Continued combat in Gaza will bring an escalation beyond what we have seen so far, before we reach a period of calm," 'Israeli' war minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.
Barak was touring the northern brigade of the 'Israeli' army's Gaza Division. With him were 'Israeli' army Chief of General Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Yoav Galant and OC Gaza Division Brig.-Gen. Moshe Tamir. "We are not in a state of calm with Hamas, we are in ongoing activity meant to stop Qassam fire," he said. "There is no change in what we are doing. What await us here are further operations and [the soldiers] will need to be prepared again for action in order to win this issue."
Barak cast doubts on the prospects of current negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and laid the blame on the Palestinians.
Referring to a possible attack by Hizbullah in retaliation for 'Israel's' assassination of Commander Imad Moghniyeh in February, Barak said "we are still the most powerful country in a 1,500 kilometer radius from Jerusalem and we are ... prepared on all fronts. We can definitely expect that some will try to hurt 'Israel' on that front."
Hamas publicly set its terms on Wednesday for a ceasefire with 'Israel', calling for an end to 'Israeli' raids in Palestinian territory and a reopening of Gaza border crossings.
"There must be a commitment by 'Israel', to end all its aggression against our people, assassinations, killings and raids, and lift the (Gaza) siege and reopen the crossings," Hamas' Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech.
A ceasefire deal, he said, should be "reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous" and apply both to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank. "We will not abandon you, our people in the West Bank," Haniyeh said. "Aggression against you is aggression against us."
There was no immediate 'Israeli' comment on Haniyeh's remarks.
He delivered the address several hours after 'Israeli' troops killed an Islamic Jihad resistance fighter in the occupied West Bank, an incident which a Hamas official said showed that 'Israel' "was not interested in calm".