"Too Soon" to Seal Gaza Truce Deal
Source: Alalam.ir, 18-06-2008
AL-QUDS-‘Israeli' occupying regime's war minister Ehud Barak has said that it was "still too soon" to talk of a Gaza truce deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
The comments came after Egypt and Hamas announced earlier on Tuesday that a ceasefire between the occupying regime and the Palestinian group in the coastal territory will begin on Thursday at 6 am (0300 GMT).
But Barak sounded a more cautious tone and the Jewish state said it would continue preparing for possible large-scale military action should a truce fall apart.
Barak said on Tuesday: "We are studying the possibility of rapidly reaching a period of calm. It is still too soon to talk of that period of calm and when comes into force, supposing it does come into force, it is difficult to know how long it will last."
The war minister added that he deemed it "important to explore the possibilities of agreeing a truce before launching a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip."
Last week, Barak spoke out in the security cabinet against any precipitate escalation of military action against the Hamas-ruled territory.
Egyptian mediators announced earlier that the occupying regime and Hamas had agreed to a truce in and around the Gaza Strip that would come into force on Thursday.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the ceasefire would last six months.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday the truce commits the occupying regime to ending its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip but any ‘Israeli' violation of the deal would not go unanswered.
Casting further doubt on whether any halt to hostilities would last, Washington reacted skeptically to news that a ceasefire had even been agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic group.
Meshaal said a lasting truce would be good for 1.5 million Palestinians who have suffered from an Israeli blockade and come as a relief for ‘Israel' if it also commits.
During a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Meshaal told Reuters: "If you go back, we go back. The resistance factions are not in a weak position, they are in a strong position... We are a people with a cause and we will not be broken by aggression or invasion."
A ceasefire would aim to end ‘Israeli' raids and air strikes in the territory and rocket bomb attacks on ‘Israel' from the coastal enclave.
Damascus-based Meshaal said that the truce deal made no mention of ‘Israeli' soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, or opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
On the other side, the ‘Israeli' regime had said Rafah would not reopen unless there was progress on Shalit's release.
AL-QUDS-‘Israeli' occupying regime's war minister Ehud Barak has said that it was "still too soon" to talk of a Gaza truce deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
The comments came after Egypt and Hamas announced earlier on Tuesday that a ceasefire between the occupying regime and the Palestinian group in the coastal territory will begin on Thursday at 6 am (0300 GMT).
But Barak sounded a more cautious tone and the Jewish state said it would continue preparing for possible large-scale military action should a truce fall apart.
Barak said on Tuesday: "We are studying the possibility of rapidly reaching a period of calm. It is still too soon to talk of that period of calm and when comes into force, supposing it does come into force, it is difficult to know how long it will last."
The war minister added that he deemed it "important to explore the possibilities of agreeing a truce before launching a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip."
Last week, Barak spoke out in the security cabinet against any precipitate escalation of military action against the Hamas-ruled territory.
Egyptian mediators announced earlier that the occupying regime and Hamas had agreed to a truce in and around the Gaza Strip that would come into force on Thursday.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the ceasefire would last six months.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday the truce commits the occupying regime to ending its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip but any ‘Israeli' violation of the deal would not go unanswered.
Casting further doubt on whether any halt to hostilities would last, Washington reacted skeptically to news that a ceasefire had even been agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic group.
Meshaal said a lasting truce would be good for 1.5 million Palestinians who have suffered from an Israeli blockade and come as a relief for ‘Israel' if it also commits.
During a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Meshaal told Reuters: "If you go back, we go back. The resistance factions are not in a weak position, they are in a strong position... We are a people with a cause and we will not be broken by aggression or invasion."
A ceasefire would aim to end ‘Israeli' raids and air strikes in the territory and rocket bomb attacks on ‘Israel' from the coastal enclave.
Damascus-based Meshaal said that the truce deal made no mention of ‘Israeli' soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, or opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
On the other side, the ‘Israeli' regime had said Rafah would not reopen unless there was progress on Shalit's release.
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