Hamas will let Israel truce expire

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By Mehdi Lebouachera AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip | The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, said Sunday that a troubled Cairo-brokered truce with Israel will not be renewed when it runs out later this week.

But a spokesman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted that his government remained keen to see the 6-month-old truce extended beyond Thursday, provided Hamas halted rocket and mortar fire against southern Israel.

"The truce was limited to six months and ends on December 19," Hamas political leader Khalid Mashaal said in a television interview from Damascus with Hamas' Al Quds satellite television.

"Given that the enemy is not respecting its commitments, and the blockade is still in place against our people, for Hamas, and I think for the majority of forces, the truce ends after December 19 and will not be renewed," he said.

Mr. Mashaal's statement came on the day marking the 21st anniversary of the Islamist group's formation at the start of the first Palestinian uprising.

The cease-fire had been marred by persistent tit-for-tat violence in recent weeks, and Hamas complains that Israel has failed to keep its side of the bargain by easing its crippling blockade of the aid-dependent Gaza Strip.

Senior Israeli Defense Ministry official Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, who conducted the negotiations for the original truce that went into force June 19, returned to Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian mediators on an extension.

Neither he nor Egypt's point man for the negotiations - intelligence chief Omar Suleiman - made any comment after their talks.

But the Israelis' spokesman, Mark Regev, later told Agence France-Presse in Jerusalem that "Israel is interested in calm reigning in the south. It was and is still ready to respect the commitments obtained through the mediation of Egypt."

Gen. Gilad, a key aide of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has been an outspoken defender of the Gaza truce despite a flurry of cross-border violence since Nov. 4 that has seen several Cabinet ministers call for a major ground offensive.

"Experience shows that military operations don't always solve problems in the Middle East," he said last month. "You have to find the optimal solution. To date, no appropriate military solution has been found for the Strip."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the Jewish state was determined to end the Hamas rule in Gaza.

"The state can and should provide an answer to the terror with its available military means. We can not allow Gaza to remain under the control of Hamas," Mrs. Livni's office quoted her as saying in a statement.