Hamas: We're Ready To Stop Bombing Israeli Schools And Hospitals For A Few Months. Maybe. (Plus: Egypt Letting Terrorists Flood Into Gaza).
Israel has saying since last May that they're eventually going to have to enter Gaza and stop the rockets. Israel did everything humanly possible to bring international, nonmilitary pressure to bear on Hamas. The New York consulate went the way up to starting a blog about the suffering in Sderot because the international press refused to cover it (although you cna be quite sure that there'll be a slight uptick in media interest when Israel rolls into Gaza). But - buoyed by the weakness of the Olmert-Peretz administration - Hamas thugs insisted that they would never stop trying to kill Israelis. Then Barak started moving tanks to the border in his new "well, if that's the way you want it..." campaign - and now Hamas is all rainbows and candy:
"Gaza's Hamas government is ready to offer a truce at this time," Mohammed Awad, a senior Hamas official, told a Gaza Web site affiliated with the Islamic group... Also Sunday, two Qassam rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck the western Negev, causing no damage or injuries... Awad said the truce would only be possible if it "helped to achieve some goals for our people" - likely meaning moves to open sealed border crossings into Israel and Egypt, relieve international economic sanctions and halt Israeli army operations against Palestinian rocket squads. The Arabic word Awad used, hudna, denotes a temporary cease-fire rather than a permanent peace. Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and EU.
Well, so much for the left's "there's no military solution to the rockets" argument. Guess there was at least one solution, huh? After the jump, great news about Egyptian cooperation with Hamas.
But in what Hamas sources described as a deal between Hamas and Egypt, around 85 militants crossed into Gaza overnight through Rafah, a terminal on the Egyptian border which had been closed for three months after Abbas' monitors were chased out. Egypt's Interior Ministry confirmed that they had agreed with Hamas to transport the people across the border. It gave no explanation... the crossing appeared to be organized with Egyptian cooperation, witnesses said... During the crossing, Hamas security officials tried to keep the operation a secret, confiscating film from photographers and cameramen alerted to the scene. The militants, whom witnesses and Hamas sources said included senior Hamas figures, had refused to avail themselves of an alternative return route to Gaza that runs through neighboring Israel for ear of being arrested by the Israelis.
Camp David is really working out great. What Israel should definitely do is sign more treaties and give away more land.
References:
* U.S. lauds Israeli restraint in face of Qassam rocket attacks [Ha'aretz]
* Blog presents Sderot suffering to world [YNet]
* Hamas renews call for cease-fire with Israel [Ha'aretz]
* No solution to rocket attacks [YNet]
Previously:
* Compare and Contrast: Israeli and Palestinian Approaches To International Charity
* Abbas: "Killing Palestinian Soldiers Who Are Firing Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals Is A Massacre"
* Giving Land To Fatah Is Giving Land To Hamas - Ramp Up To November Edition
