Barak says it’s early to declare that a truce deal was reached

Wednesday June 18, 2008 00:14 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, stated on Tuesday that it is too early right now to say that Egypt brokered a truce deal between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip.

Ehud Barak

Barak added that Israel will examine the possibility of reaching a calm but cannot determine how long this deal, if fully achieved, will last.

He also said that “the implementation of this deal would be the real test”, and added that Israel wants to exert all needed efforts in order to ensure that no homemade shells are fired from Gaza into Sderot, Ashkelon and other adjacent areas.

Barak also stated that Israel will take all needed efforts to resume talks over the release of the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.  

 The statements of Barak came after the Egyptian official news agency reported earlier on Tuesday that Israel and Hamas have agreed on a truce which would start on Thursday.

 The agency said that a senior official in Egypt declared that Hamas and Israel have agreed to implement the first phase of a deal which would end violence in Gaza and southern Israel.

 It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army killed six Palestinians on Tuesday in several airstrikes that targeted a number of areas in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run news website reported that the slain Palestinians are members of the “Army of Islam”.

israel | israeli politics | news report saed at imemc dot org