Israel Welcomes Truce Plan for Gaza, but Does Not Accept It Yet
By VOA News
07 January 2009
Israel says it welcomes an Egyptian-French plan for a truce in Gaza, but has stopped short of accepting it.
An Israeli spokesman says Israel only will accept a cease-fire that stops Hamas rocket fire from Gaza into the Jewish state, and prevents Palestinian militants from re-arming.
Hamas says it is studying the Egyptian-French plan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday Israel and the Palestinian Authority accepted the plan. It calls for a limited cease-fire to take effect immediately to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The truce is aimed at giving Egypt time to broker a permanent end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
The French News Agency quotes a senior Israeli official saying that an aide to Israel's Defense Minister will go to Cairo Thursday to discuss the plan.
A White House spokeswoman said today the U.S. is interested in learning more about the Egyptian-French plan. She also said there is an urgent need to reach a cease-fire in Gaza. But she added that Hamas must first stop firing rockets into Israel, in order for a truce to take shape.
In New York, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the Egyptian-French plan with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Also, the U.N. Security Council resumed talks today on ways to stop the fighting.
And the U.N. Human Rights Council has called a special session Friday on what it calls "the grave violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory including the recent aggression in the occupied Gaza Strip."
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said today he is working to make sure that when he takes office on January 20, his administration will "engage immediately" to deal with the Israel-Hamas conflict. But he said now is not the time for him to comment further on the situation.
Other nations, including Iran, Turkey and Syria are also trying to bring about a cease-fire.
The Palestinian Authority is in charge of the West Bank and is led by President Mahmoud Abbas. He heads the Fatah faction, a rival of Hamas. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after its gunmen defeated Fatah fighters in June 2007.
Israel declared an end to its occupation of the Gaza Strip in September 2005. Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in the territory in January 2006.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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