Israel set a series of tough conditions for accepting a proposed truce with Hamas, saying Wednesday there would be no deal and no open borders for Gaza Strip until Hamas frees a captured Israeli soldier. The unanimous decision by the 11-member Security Cabinet was likely to set back Egyptian attempts to broker a long-term ceasefire.
According to the AP, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened Wednesday's meeting to review the emerging deal. Israel has been demanding an end to Hamas rocket attacks and arms smuggling, as well as the freedom of Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June 2006 and has been held in Gaza since then.
In their decision, the ministers said there could be no deal on the borders before Schalit comes home safely. "I don't think we need to open the crossings until the issue of Gilad Schalit is resolved," Olmert told the gathering, according to his office.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would continue to allow limited food and humanitarian items into Gaza in the meantime. According to him, the ministers also approved a number of prisoners that could be freed in exchange for Shalit. "Releasing Gilad Shalit will require us to pay a painful price. We will have to release terrorists, people who are guilty of very difficult crimes," Regev said. "The ministers supported and understood this."
Ali Baraka, a Hamas leader based at the movement's Damascus headquarters, said Israel's decision "comes in the face of Egyptian efforts because this position is one of obstinacy." "If the enemy government wants to win the release of Shalit it must release the prisoners that the resistance groups want. To tie the two tracks undermines the Egyptian efforts and is a blow to these efforts," he said.
