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Olmert rejects truce until Shalit freed
 If Hamas wants a cease-fire, first it needs to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit and then stop firing rockets at Israel, senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office said Saturday night. The comments came in response to a five-point truce proposal that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh issued Saturday, calling on Israel to stop its offensive and release prisoners. "If we want to get out of the current crisis, it is necessary to return to calm, on the basis of a mutual halt to all military operations," said a statement issued by cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad in Haniyeh's name. Hamas also urged Israel to open negotiations over the fate of Shalit. It did not, however, say what Hamas would do in return. One senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made clear since the outset of the crisis two weeks ago that the first thing that needed to be done was for the Palestinians to release Shalit. After that, he said, "we will respond to quiet with quiet of our own." The official said that Israel had no intention of remaining in positions that the IDF had moved into inside the Gaza Strip, and that Israel did not leave Gaza 10 months ago with the intention of returning. He said that if Kassam rocket fire continues after the IDF once again leaves Gaza, the IDF would return. "We can go in and come out very quickly," he said. Posted by: Fred 2006-07-09 |
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