Barak Floats Ceasefire if Gaza’s Militants Hold Fire
Israel is ready to stop firing on the Gaza Strip if Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave end a barrage of rocket and mortar fire, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday.
His comments came after Gaza's Hamas rulers declared a state of emergency for its security services in the wake of confrontations with Israel that have killed 18 Palestinians since Thursday.
Barak said Israel was ready to end the confrontation, if Hamas and other armed groups stopped firing.
"If they are cease firing, we'll cease fire," he said, reacting to reports that the Islamist movement's political wing is ready for a truce.
"We cannot tolerate firing" against Israel, said Barak, who has indefinitely postponed a trip to Washington in the face of escalating tit-for-tat violence around the territory where Israel fought a devastating 22-day conflict in December 2008-January 2009.
"We will act along the lines of what happens on the ground," he added.
It was the first time that an Israeli minister had floated the possibility of a ceasefire since deadly clashes with the Palestinians broke out on Thursday after an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus.
Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza had previously announced a unilateral truce that unraveled before it had a chance to take hold, with militants firing dozens of rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel.
But on Saturday, a senior Israeli security official said Hamas' political wing had asked Israel for a ceasefire.
"The political branch of Hamas has sent a message asking for an Israeli ceasefire" in exchange for a halt to Palestinian attacks, the official told Agence France Presse.
He said military operations would continue for as long as Israel felt "its people cannot lead normal lives."
Overnight, the situation calmed slightly but at least three mortar rounds were fired from Gaza into Israel early on Sunday, without causing casualties, the army said.
On Saturday, Hamas declared a state of emergency in the face of the deadly Israeli reprisals against the territory.
"The (Hamas) interior ministry has decreed a state of emergency. All security forces must work 24 hours a day along with the civil defense and medical services to protect and save inhabitants taken as targets by the Zionist occupier," ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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