With lull in rockets, Israel halts Gaza raids
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed his army commanders to halt airstrikes and land incursions into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after a decrease in Palestinian rocket attacks in recent days, officials told Israeli media.
“I said a number of days ago that if there will be no [Gaza rocket] attacks against Israeli citizens living in the south, Israel will have no reason to fire back,” Olmert said Monday in an interview with Army Radio.
Olmert aides told several publications, including Ha- aretz and the Jerusalem Post, that the prime minister was reining in strikes on Gaza for now.
The comparative lull on Israel’s southern flank came after a rise in hostilities last week. Israel ended a days-long offensive into Gaza early in the week that left more than 100 Palestinians dead. On Thursday, a Palestinian gunman killed eight Israeli students in a religious school in Jerusalem.
The violence temporarily halted U.S.-sponsored peace talks here, but both Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have since recommitted themselves to negotiations. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, a Bush administration envoy, arrives Thursday to check on the status of each side’s commitments under the so-called road map peace plan.
Vice President Dick Cheney will also visit Israel and the West Bank next week as part of a regional tour that includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Oman, the White House announced Monday.
President Bush said he was sending Cheney “to reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East,” and that the U.S. expects the parties to meet “their obligations on the road map.”
Bush has repeatedly said he hopes to have concrete results in the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Monday that the talks were “not moving fast enough.”
The last few days of calm in Gaza came amid steady mediation efforts by Egypt, but there were conflicting signs Monday as to whether those indirect contacts had borne results.
Abbas said a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas had been reached. A Hamas official said there was no official cease-fire, but acknowledged that talks were continuing.
Olmert, who would face heavy public criticism for negotiating with the Islamic militant movement, denied that any direct or indirect contacts were taking place.
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Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.
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