Hamas ready to deal with US peace plan

September 25th, 2009 Egyptian minister urges swap for Israeli soldierUNITED NATIONS — Egypt's foreign minister urged Israel on Friday to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006. Egypt has been mediating a prisoner swap and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Israel needs to show flexibility.

September 15th, 2009 Israelis, Palestinians present blueprint for peaceTEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli and Palestinian activists on Tuesdsay presented the most detailed vision yet of what a peace deal between the two sides could look like, aimed at showing that peace is possible despite the long deadlock in negotiations. The plan has no official standing, but has generated interest among Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

September 2nd, 2009 Israel releases 9 Hamas lawmakers from prisonRAMALLAH, West Bank — A Hamas legislator in the West Bank says Israel has released nine other Hamas lawmakers from Israeli prisons. The legislator, Mahmoud Ramahi, says the men had all completed 40-month prison terms and their release Wednesday did not appear to be a gesture from Israel.

August 19th, 2009 GAZA - The Palestinian Hamas movement Wednesday rejected US President Barack Obama's call for strengthening Arab relations with Israel in exchange for halting Jewish settlement projects in the West Bank. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri urged the Arab states "to reject normalisation of relations with Israel".

June 8th, 2009 Hamas official says Obama should talk to militantsDAMASCUS, Syria — An exiled Hamas leader urged Barack Obama on Monday to talk directly with the militant group, saying it is the representative of the Palestinian people and the American president's drive for Mideast peace is impossible without them. Hamas' deputy political leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, also told The Associated Press that the group would not renounce violence — a key U.S.

May 8th, 2009 Palestinians give cool reception to Netanyahu planJERUSALEM — Palestinian officials on Thursday gave a cool reception to a new Israeli plan to develop the West Bank economy, saying the initiative "will make things worse" if it is not accompanied by negotiations aimed at reaching a final peace accord. The skepticism from the Palestinians came just over a week before the new Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, heads to Washington for talks.

May 6th, 2009 Blair: New Mideast peace plan unveiled in weeksJERUSALEM — The Obama administration and international negotiators are drafting a new strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and expect to unveil it within six weeks, international Mideast envoy Tony Blair said. The plan — being devised by the U.S.

April 22nd, 2009 Hamas leader to address British lawmakersLONDON — It promises to be one of the British Parliament's more controversial question and answer sessions. The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas plans an unprecedented video link address to British lawmakers Wednesday, part of a campaign to persuade the West to talk to his party if it wants peace in the Middle East.

April 9th, 2009 GAZA - Leaders of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements held a meeting in Hamas-ruled Gaza Wednesday to discuss reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and mutual reconciliation. The meeting between the two movements' leaders is the first of its kind since Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 following weeks of bloodshed between the two groups' warring militants.

March 29th, 2009 GAZA - The Islamic Hamas movement has threatened to kidnap more Israeli soldiers if Tel Aviv does not respond to its call to free Palestinian prisoners. The Al-Qassam Brigade, armed wing of the Hamas movement, made the announcement Saturday.

March 16th, 2009 GAZA - The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, Sunday accused its rival Fatah movement of blocking the progress of the unity talks the factions hold in Cairo. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said that Fatah still crack down against Hamas's supporters in West Bank.

February 5th, 2009 GAZA - An official in the Islamist movement Hamas said Thursday that the movement would give its final answer on Saturday to a possible Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel, but said that Israeli proposals for an agreement were vague. Hamas Gaza spokesman in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum said that 'a deal on a truce was not reached' because Israel had linked ending its blockade on the Gaza Strip and opening the border crossings - a key Hamas demand - with the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in the Strip for over two-and-a-half years.

January 30th, 2009 LONDON - Former British prime minister and current international Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair has said in a newspaper interview published Saturday that the Palestinian militant movement Hamas must be brought into the peace process. Blair, in an interview with The Times, said that the previous policy pursued by the Quartet - the UN, US, Russia and the EU - of isolating Hamas and concentrating peace and reconciliation efforts on the West Bank 'was never going to work and will never work'.

December 28th, 2008 TEL AVIV/GAZA - The Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza again Monday morning, hitting 40 targets of the Islamic Hamas movement that virtually controls the area. One of the targets struck by Israeli bombs early Monday was a building of Islamic University in Gaza and a guest house of the de facto Hamas government, an army spokesman said.

December 26th, 2008 GAZA - At least 120 Palestinians, most of them Hamas security members, were killed Saturday when Israeli airplanes launched simultaneous strikes across the Gaza Strip, Hamas sources said. Tawfiq Jaber, chief of Hamas police, was among the dead in the series of strikes targetting almost all Hamas-run security headquarters and training camps of its military wing.