Israel sets forth conditions for ceasefire ahead of Suleiman's Visit

Monday May 05, 2008 17:05 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC

The Israeli government set forth on Monday three main conditions for a possible Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Government's spokesman, Mark Regev

Spokesman of the Israeli government, Mark Regev, told the IMEMC in a phone interview, that his government welcomes the upcoming visit of Egyptian intelligence chief , Omar Suleiman, yet it has set forth three conditions for a potential ceasefire with the Palestinians.

" first, hostile fire on southern Israel should come to a halt, second, terrorist attacks from Gaza on Israel should stop and third, the smuggling of weapons into Gaza must stop", Rgev explained.

Asked whether there will be high expectations out of the upcoming visit by Suleiman to Israel for talks on the Hamas offer for ceasefire, Regev maintained " there have been good contacts between Israel and Egypt and General Suleiman is welcomed, then we will see".

The said remarks came after the ruling Hamas in Gaza along with representatives of 12 Palestinian resistance factions, agreed almost two weeks ago in Cairo, to an Egyptian-mediated truce offer with Israel for a period of six months, to be extended later on in the West Bank.

The initiative stipulates that Hamas would ensure halt of all forms of Palestinian attacks on Israel, including the homemade shells fire and that Israel would lift the Gaza blockade and stop all military actions against the coastal region.

Hamas has said that the court now is in the Israeli ball and that what is needed is an international pressure on Israel to accept the ceasefire deal and instate calm in the region.

Since June of last year, Israel has been enforcing a crippling closure on Gaza , after the Islamist Hamas party seized control over there amidst factional infighting with Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel says that its actions on Gaza, including cut of shipments of fuel to Gaza's 1.5 million residents, are meant to stop homemade shells fire from Gaza onto southern Israel.

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