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JERUSALEM-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told lawmakers Monday that Israel would not agree to open a key Gaza border crossing, explicitly rejecting a chief condition that the Hamas militant group has set for a cease-fire with Israel. Egypt has been trying for months to mediate a deal to halt a conflict in which Gaza extremists fire rockets and mortars at southern Israel and the Israeli military retaliates with air and ground strikes. But each side has set tough conditions.Israel wants progress in negotiations to return an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-allied militants nearly two years ago. Hamas wants Israel to immediately open border crossings that were closed to all but humanitarian aid after the Islamic group seized control of Gaza a year ago.On Monday, Olmert told parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border - Gaza's main gateway to the outside world - would stay closed."We won't be willing to open the Rafah crossing at this point," a meeting participant quoted the prime minister as saying. Another official had no answer when asked if that meant the passage could be opened later.Both Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity because panel proceedings are supposed to be confidential. But the proceedings are routinely leaked, and Olmert likely used the platform to make his position clear to Hamas.Israeli officials have previously said they fear that if the border crossings are opened, Hamas would consolidate its rule over Gaza and restock its arsenal.Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan accused Israel of "putting obstacles in front of Egyptian efforts to achieve calm.""The Rafah border must be opened" as part of the calm, Radwan said, repeating Hamas' demand that Egypt open the crossing if Israel doesn't.Although the Rafah crossing lies on the Gaza-Egypt border, the passage has been closed because Europeans monitoring the crossing require Israeli security clearance to operate. That clearance has not been given since Hamas took over Gaza.
A breakdown in the indirect truce talks would increase the likelihood of Israel launching a threatened major military operation against Gaza rocket and mortar squads. Olmert reiterated such a possibility in his remarks to the committee Monday, meeting participants said.Olmert told lawmakers that Israel would continue to open other Gaza crossings to humanitarian aid."We won't allow optimal conditions in Gaza, but we won't allow starvation, nor will we prevent medicines from entering Gaza," he was quoted as saying.Palestinians have carried out a series of attacks on Israeli frontier terminals the past two weeks, most recently a failed suicide bombing last week at the Erez crossing, the main passage for Gazans seeking medical treatment. Although the crossings are used to deliver basic supplies to Gaza, militants target them as symbols of Israel's economic blockade.Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings, is not involved in peace talks that Israel launched with Palestinian moderates in the U.S. in November.Olmert and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged at that conference to try to finalize a peace deal by the end of this year, but both camps have suggested it is not realistic to expect a fleshed-out accord by the time President Bush leaves office in January.
As in the days of Noah....
