Israel Gives Cold Reply to Hamas Truce Talks

By Isabel Kershner

Officials in the Israeli prime minister’s office reacted coolly Wednesday to an indirect approach by the Hamas leader in Gaza offering talks on a truce.

The offer was relayed through an Israeli reporter, Suleiman al- Shafi, of Israel’s Channel 2 TV. On the main news broadcast Tuesday night, Shafi said that Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader, had called him earlier in the day and sought to convey a message to the Israelis.

According to Shafi, Haniya said he had the will and the ability to stop the rocket fire directed at Israel from Gaza, on the condition that Israel stopped the killing of Palestinians there and lifted the economic blockade of the strip.

In response to Haniya’s reported message, Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, said: “Our partner for dialogue is the legitimate Palestinian government,” referring to the one appointed by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank.

Speaking to The New York Times on Wednesday, Shafi said that Haniya stated that he would have “no problem” negotiating with the Israeli government on these issues, with an eye to reaching a mutual truce.

Haniya’s call followed a series of Israeli military strikes that killed at least 10 Palestinian militants in Gaza on Monday night and Tuesday morning, in a concerted effort to suppress the rocket fire.

Eight of those killed were from Islamic Jihad, which has been responsible for most of the recent rocket fire, and included a top commander of the group’s military wing, who had been specifically targeted by Israel.

Two of those killed were from Hamas, which has mainly limited itself to firing shorter-range mortar shells at the border crossings and at Israeli border communities in recent months. Hamas fired scores of rockets in May, when the last shaky cease-fire with Israel broke down.

Hamas, the Islamic group that has been at the vanguard of a suicide bombing campaign in Israel in recent years, does not recognize Israel and calls in its charter for Israel’s destruction.

Israel, like the United States and the European Union, classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuses to deal with it.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2007 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.