Israel says no cease-fire until soldier comes home

[February 18, 2009]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Top Israeli Cabinet ministers Wednesday set a series of tough conditions for accepting a proposed cease-fire with Hamas, saying there would be no deal until the Islamic militant group releases a captured Israeli soldier.

The unanimous decision by the 11-member Security Cabinet was likely to set back Egyptian efforts to broker a long-term truce in the wake of Israel's harsh military offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last month. Israel planned to dispatch a senior envoy to Cairo in the coming days.

There was no immediate reaction from Egypt or Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened Wednesday's meeting to discuss the emerging deal. Israel has been demanding an end to Hamas rocket attacks and arms smuggling and the freedom of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Hamas wants an end to Israel's devastating economic blockade of Gaza, including the opening of its border crossings. It says the issue of the soldier should be handled separately and has demanded the freedom of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including dozens of convicted murderers, in return.

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.

"Three years have passed and we think we cannot come to any agreement with Hamas or Egypt without solving the issue of Gilad Schalit," said Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit, one of the meeting participants.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would continue to allow a limited flow of food and humanitarian items into Gaza in the meantime. Regev said the ministers also approved a number of prisoners that could be released in exchange for Schalit. He declined to elaborate.

Olmert has been eager to work out a deal before he leaves office in the coming weeks. But Wednesday's decision indicated that negotiations could stretch on for some time.

Olmert is stepping down after last week's parliamentary election. The results of the vote were inconclusive, and it is expected to take several weeks before either of the top two vote-getters, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, can form a new coalition government.

Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, was set to begin several days of consultations with political parties on Wednesday before designating a candidate to form a government.

Although Olmert would like to leave a clean slate to his successor, he had toughened his negotiating position in recent days by linking the soldier's release to the issue of the borders.

Israel and Egypt clamped a blockade on Gaza after Hamas overran the crowded sliver of territory in 2007, allowing in little more than basic humanitarian supplies.

The blockade has caused widespread hardship in Gaza, particularly after the Israeli military offensive. Dire shortages of cement, glass and other building supplies make reconstruction virtually impossible until the borders reopen.

Reopening the border is the top priority of the Hamas government. Speaking at his headquarters in Syria on Tuesday, Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, complained about Olmert's conditions.

"There can be no truce unless the (Gaza) blockade is lifted and the crossings are opened. The truce issue should not be linked to the issue of prisoner Schalit," he said Tuesday.

At stake in the truce talks is stabilizing Gaza after Israel's offensive, which aimed to stop years of Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel. Some 1,300 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed.

Hamas wants hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for the captured soldier, including some convicted of participating in or planning some of the bloodiest Palestinian attacks against Israel. The prospect of notorious killers going free has provoked heated debate in Israel and could delay the deal as the government sifts through the list of prisoners Hamas wants freed.

Since the fighting ended, there has been sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, triggering Israeli airstrikes aimed at smuggling tunnels and Hamas outposts.

Early on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border and a Hamas security base near the town of Khan Younis, local Palestinian security officials said.

They said the Hamas base had already been largely reduced to rubble in previous air attacks, but this time a mosque left standing inside the compound was destroyed. There were no reports of casualties.

The Israeli military said aircraft hit seven tunnels and the Khan Younis base in response to the Palestinians firing 45 rockets and mortar shells since the Jan.18 cease fire.

Later in the morning a rocket fired from Gaza fell in open ground in southern Israel, police said. There were no reported casualties.

[Associated Press; By JOSEF FEDERMAN]

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

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