Israel says Egyptian truce efforts are ‘positive’

February 13th, 2009 GAZA CITY - Israel has rejected an 18-month ceasefire with Hamas and wants an open lull without a time-limit, the Islamist Hamas movement said Saturday. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that Egypt, which has mediated between Israel and Hamas, and his movement can't accept such an open lull in accordance with Israel's request.

February 12th, 2009 CAIRO - Hamas has accepted an 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported Friday. 'We agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half,' Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu-Marzouk said in a statement, adding that Gaza's six border crossings should be re-opened and the Jewish country must 'stop military actions and aggressions in all forms'.

February 6th, 2009 DAMASCUS - The Palestinian group Hamas will not accept any long-term truce with Israel if it does not include lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled political leader has said. 'Israel cannot dictate terms for a ceasefire after losing war in Gaza,' he told a rally Friday in the Syrian capital Damascus, where he is based.

February 5th, 2009 RAFAH - A senior Hamas member trying to return to Gaza after talks with Egyptian mediators was turned back at the Rafah crossing by border guards who found cash in his bags totalling nearly $12 million. But Ayman Taha was allowed back into the strip late Thursday after Egyptian authorities insisted he put the money in a bank in the north Sinai town of Arish, al-Arabiya news channel reported.

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.

February 4th, 2009 CAIRO - As Egypt's Thursday deadline for negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip approaches, a Hamas representative said an agreement was unlikely by the end of Wednesday's negotiations. 'There is still a huge gap between Hamas and Israel concerning a truce.

February 1st, 2009 BEIRUT/CAIRO - Hamas representatives Monday denied they had agreed to a one-year truce with Israel. The Lebanon-based spokesman of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Osama Hamdan, reiterated the movement's stance that there could be no long-term peace agreement before the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of Gaza was lifted, contradicting remarks made by a Gaza-based Hamas representative Sunday.

February 1st, 2009 GAZA - The Islamic Hamas movement said Monday that it accepted a one-year truce with Israel for lifting the blockade on Gaza and reopening the border crossings. Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that the Hamas delegation which arrived in Cairo Sunday will inform senior Egyptian security officials that they accept a one-year truce with Israel.

January 27th, 2009 CAIRO - International Quartet's envoy for the Middle East and former British prime minister Tony Blair Wednesday praised the ongoing Egyptian efforts to consolidate a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Blair said it's the most important move to stabilize the fragile truce in Gaza, Egpyt's MENA news agency reported.

January 24th, 2009 CAIRO - Egyptian officials were Sunday meeting with representatives of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in talks aimed at turning a one-week ceasefire into a durable truce, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said. Speaking to the satellite news network al-Arabiya, Ayman Taha, a representative of Hamas from Gaza, said that the group would not agree to an open-ended truce, but was prepared to negotiate an 18-month ceasefire.

January 24th, 2009 GAZA - Hamas movement's leaders Sunday rejected a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying that only a ceasefire for a limited period of time was acceptable. Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters here that the Hamas delegation heading to Cairo was 'not to agree on a long-term ceasefire, but to discuss the reinforcing of the truce between Israel and Gaza factions.' 'The talks in Cairo aim at reaching a limited ceasefire that doesn't exceed one year, then we can re-discuss it before it ends,' Radwan said, adding that 'reopening the crossings and rebuilding Gaza will be issues to be discussed.' 'We won't accept a long term truce that kills the armed resistance, because resistance is a legal right for the Palestinian people as long as there is an occupation,' he added.

January 17th, 2009 BEIRUT - A Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Saturday if there is no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and no lifting of siege there will be no ceasefire. Hamdan was speaking shortly before the Israeli security cabinet announced a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza.

January 15th, 2009 CAIRO - Egypt and the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas have agreed to a five-step plan that calls for a ceasefire as of Saturday, an Arab newspaper reported Friday as a senior Israeli official arrived for talks in Cairo. The pan-Arab Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, quoting Egyptian officials, said Egypt and Hamas have agreed to the Egyptian truce initiative, which now needs the approval of Israel.

January 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush has said Palestinian militants must first stop its rocket attacks on Israel before talks for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

December 25th, 2008 GAZA/TEL AVIV - Israel Friday gave Hamas and other Palestinian militant factions in the Gaza Strip 48 hours to reduce ongoing rocket and mortar attacks from the salient or risk an Israeli military operation into the strip. For the first time in 10 days, Israel opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip Friday morning to allow in essential humanitarian supplies.