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Olmert rejects truce talks
24/12/2007 08:07 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Gaza militants fired at least four rockets after Israel's prime minister ruled out truce talks and pledged to keep up with his intensified military campaign against Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop the barrages.
One of the rockets fired on Sunday damaged a factory near the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the military said. No one was hurt, but the daily rocket salvos have taken a toll on the psyche of residents of southern Israel, putting pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government to stop the rockets.
Reports of truce feelers from the embattled Islamic Hamas regime in Gaza have been surfacing almost daily, and Israeli defence officials have said they are examining the proposals.
But Olmert rejected the idea. "There is no other way to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip except as a true war between the Israeli army and terrorist elements," Olmert told his Cabinet, ruling out truce talks.
The unconfirmed reports have Hamas convincing fellow militants in Gaza to stop their daily rocket fire at southern Israel, while Israel halts its air and ground operations in Gaza.
Despite their overt rejections of a formal ceasefire, Israeli officials have been saying a formal truce is unnecessary. They say if Gaza militants stop the rocket fire, Israel would have no reason to attack.
Israel has doubts about whether Hamas has the ability or the willingness to force the other militants to stop firing rockets. Islamic Jihad, which is behind most of the rocket salvos, on Sunday again rejected a truce with Israel.
Israeli airstrikes over a two-day period last week killed 12, including two top Islamic Jihad commanders. The truce feelers started surfacing a day later, first in a call from Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh to an Israeli TV reporter and later, according to officials, by way of Egypt, which has mediated several other past truces.
Israeli officials said Defence Minister Ehud Barak will travel this week to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak. It was unclear whether a ceasefire would be on the agenda.
Also on Sunday, Israel allocated $207m over five years to develop a system, with the US, to knock down missiles like the ones fired from Gaza or during last year's war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
After Hamas overran Gaza in June, expelling forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and Egypt closed their borders with Gaza, further worsening the critical economic situation there.
In parallel, the West began promoting the Abbas government in the West Bank, renewing aid cut off after Hamas won a 2006 election.
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