Gaza truce takes effect cautiously early Thursday

Egypt suggests deployment of Arab force in Gaza; Israel mulls

Yemeni president discusses with Abbas healing the rift in Palestinian ranks

Arab information ministers approve multilingual media plan to address int'l public opinion

Israeli forces shift operations from Gaza to West bank cities

Guns went quiet as a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza Strip militants took effect early Thursday, but there was widespread skepticism about its ability to hold.

The cease-fire, which Egypt labored for months to conclude, aims to bring an end to a year of fighting that has killed seven Israelis and more than 400 Palestinians — many of them civilians — since the Islamic militant group Hamas wrested control of Gaza a year ago.

The Palestinian dismissed PM Ismail Haniya asserted that the issue of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is separated from truce with Israel.

In his meeting with some journalist in Gaza Haniya said that if Israel wishes to speed up ending the issue of its soldier we will not object. He added that Israel accepts the demands of the Palestinian factions.

The Palestinian factions insist that they will not release Shalit, but through prisoners swap.

As the Gaza Strip ceasefire enters its fourth successful day, Israel began to allow the shipment of basic goods that have been made scarce in Gaza by a year-long Israeli-led blockade.

Gaza's Israeli-controlled border crossings opened at 9:30 on Sunday morning. Witnesses at the Sufa crossing point, in southern Gaza, said that the goods are being placed 500 meters inside the Palestinian side of the border. By 3pm, when the transfer is complete, the goods will be distributed to aid agencies and commercial distributors.

An Israeli security source said that 90 truckloads of goods passed through the Sufa crossing.

A large portion of Sunday's shipment is food and medical supplies for UNRWA, the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the World Food Program and various health organizations.

According to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel is to allow 30% more goods into the Gaza Strip.

As the occupying power, Israel controls the Strip's border crossings, and has severely curtailed shipments of vital goods, including food, construction materials, fuel, shoes, clothes, and even medical supplies. Virtually none of Gaza's 1.5 million residents have been allowed outside in the past year.

Separately, sources in the Israeli Ministry of Defense said they would seek to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing to take pressure off the other, smaller border crossings.

There are reports that a shipment of diesel fuel is scheduled to pass through the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, although reporters said that the tanker trucks are still waiting for the crossing to be opened. Still other reports indicated that Sunday's fuel shipment will not represent an increase in the severely-curtailed supply allowed into Gaza.

According to a senior defense official involved in the cease- fire talks, Egypt raised the request for the deployment of the Arab force during meetings between Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, and Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

Israel, the defense official said, was not completely opposed to the idea since it would ultimately bring Arab countries such as Egypt to "take responsibility" for events in Gaza. The deployment was also raised as a way for Palestinian [National] Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party to regain control of the Gaza Strip.

The official said that while Israel was therefore in favor of the initiative, the defense establishment was skeptical that it would succeed in light of Hamas's public opposition as well as the operational challenges it would pose for the IDF. One such challenge would be concerns over accidentally harming soldiers of the multinational force while pursuing "terrorists" inside the Gaza Strip, he said.

"Egypt would like to see Arab troops on the ground," the senior defense official said. "It is unlikely, however, that it will happen considering Hamas's opposition."

The introduction of foreign Arab forces would only come in the last phase of the multi-stage truce that Egypt brokered between Israel and Hamas.

After all these stages are implemented, the idea of an Arab force inside the Gaza Strip would be considered more seriously. At present it is still a "vague idea "that all officials involved realize" is not going to happen tomorrow and that would depend on Israeli approval.

A majority of Israelis supports the truce between Israel and Hamas movement ruling Gaza, but they were skeptical that it would last, an opinion poll published said.

Some 56 per cent of Israelis questioned said they were in favor of The six-month truce brokered by Egypt, according to Yediot Ahronot, the Israeli daily which commissioned the poll.

The truce, which came after months of deadly violence and difficult indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, has taken a precarious hold, with no violent incidents reported in its first more than 30 hours.

Some 64 per cent of Israelis asked nevertheless said they did not believe the truce would last.

The truce also has not helped Prime Minister Ehud Olmert increase his popularity, according to the poll, with 79 per cent saying they had not changed their opinion about the embattled Israeli leader, who is being investigated by police on suspicions that he illegally accepted hundreds of thousands of US dollars from an American Jewish fundraiser.

The opposition hard-line Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu is to bring a first reading of a bill calling for early elections before the Knesset (parliament), and the centre-left Labor Party,

Olmert's largest coalition party, has said it will support it. Labor Party leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak has not yet decided whether to support the decisive second and third reading of the bill, but has demanded Olmert's centrist Kadima party hold primaries soon to replace him, if it wants to avoid early elections.

According to Friday's poll, the Likud, which opposes the Annapolis peace process, would beat both the Olmert-led Kadima and Labor.

Some 31 per cent of Israelis asked said Netanyahu was most suited to be prime minister, against 17 pr cent for Barak and only 10 per cent for Olmert.

When given the option to choose between Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Olmert's rival in Kadima and Barak, Netanyahu and Livni tied, with each obtaining 30 per cent. The Yediot poll questioned 500 adult Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.4 per cent.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon reacted harshly to reports of an imminent Gaza cease-fire, calling it "a victory for radical Islam."

"I am against a truce, because it is another triumph for radical Islam. It won in Lebanon and now it is about to win in Gaza. So what is the point of being moderate? Why would Hamas be interested in a resolution?" said Ramon at a Haifa University conference.

Ramon, together with Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, abstained from a cabinet vote to refrain from embarking on a large-scale military operation in Gaza and instead to give more time to Egyptian-mediated truce efforts, although none of the ministers voted against the decision.

The father of abducted soldier Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit sent letters to top government officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, asking for clarification on all matters pertaining the Egyptian-brokered truce agreed to by Israel and Hamas.

In letters to Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Shalit did not conceal his disappointment in the fact that Israel agreed to a truce before consolidating a deal on the release of his son .Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006

Haaretz has learned that Shalit consulted with judicial officials and considers these letters the first step in future legal proceedings he plans to initiate for his son's release, including a possible appeal to the High Court of Justice against the implementation of the cease-fire.

In his letter to the government officials, Shalit also criticized the fact that no official had notified him of the details of the agreement with Hamas.

Shalit raised doubts about whether the truce would go into effect and about whether negotiations for the release of his son would advance.

In an interview with Channel 2, Shalit said, "Until this moment, we still have not received any official information from any official source."

He also expressed concern that the reopening of Gaza's border crossings will cause Israel to lose whatever leverage remains regarding Gilad's release, and that the matter will drag on for many years.

We learned the lesson from Ron Arad's family, and we are trying to prevent it from repeating," said Shalit".

He added, "Opening the Rafah crossing is liable to harm Gilad and may enable his being smuggled into another country. The prime minister promised that the subject of Gilad will be part of the truce. Israel is not asking for Gilad at no price; it is willing to pay for his freedom with Palestinian prisoners."

Hours after the confirmation was announced, Olmert said that Shalit's release was an inseparable part of the cease-fire deal.

Gilad Shalit's release is inseparable from the understandings reached in the terms for calm. Each day, I make efforts to return him to his parents. I believe that as part of the understandings that enabled this calm, we will be able to advance his release," Olmert said"

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh held in Sana'a talks with the visiting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas which dealt with developments of the Palestinian issue and situation in the region.

The Palestinian President informed President Saleh on developments of the situation in the Palestinian arena in the light of the truce agreement in Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel and the call for holding Palestinian national dialogue in the light of the Yemeni initiative for healing the rift in the Palestinian rank.

Present Abbas also informed President Saleh on results of the first's visit to Washington and his meeting with American President George Bush and results of his meetings with the Israeli prime minister Olmert for pushing the peace efforts in the region and affirmed keenness of the Palestinian authority on holding a Palestinian national dialogue with different Palestinian factions out of the Yemeni initiative and resolutions of the Arab summit in Damascus.

President Saleh reconfirmed Yemen's support for the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on their national soil, with its capital al-Quds, demanding the end of blockade imposed on the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip.

President Saleh also affirmed Yemen's backing for holding large Palestinian national dialogue with different Palestinian factions and forces in the manner leading to heal the rift to encounter the challenges and serving the Palestinian cause.

In the wake of talks by President Saleh and President Abbas, President Saleh in joint statements to the media, "We are with a Palestinian national reconciliation and free and democratic elections and with a national unity government as well as uniting the Palestinian security apparatuses in service of the higher interests of the Palestinian people and their cause and enhancement of their national unity in the face of the current challenges." He said "Our stand is clear which is part of the Arab stand supportive of struggle of the Palestinian people to get their freedom and independence and with unity of all Palestinian factions."

On his part the Palestinian President said the talks dealt with different issues mainly Palestinian internal situation and the truce that was implemented.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad called on Israel to halt military operations in the occupied West Bank following the coming into force of a truce in and around Gaza.

"All those Israeli military operations in areas under our control must cease," said Fayyad, whose government's writ has been limited to the West Bank since the Islamist Hamas movement's seizure of Gaza in June last year.

The Western-backed premier said the Israeli security presence in the occupied territory "undermines our efforts, the credibility of our efforts, the morale of our troops, and it undermines our credibility politically."

He nonetheless welcomed the Egyptian-brokered truce in and around Gaza which Israel has said will trigger a gradual easy of its blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory from Sunday if it holds.

"It is a very important step as it should allow an improvement of living conditions in the Gaza Strip and an easing of the suffering of the population," Fayyad said.

"This truce boosts our position in calling for a reopening of the crossing points into Gaza and this is very important. This truce must be given every chance to succeed," he said.

The Gaza truce, which Hamas has said will last for an initial six months, does not extend to the West Bank where Israel says its military operations are essential to preventing attacks inside the Jewish state.

Fayyad also expressed concern over the lack of progress in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership that were revived to great fanfare in the United States last November after a seven-year gap.

"I'm especially alarmed by the fact that there has been a substantial, dramatic increase in terms of the settlement activity," he said.

In recent months, Israel has announced plans to build hundreds more homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Fayyad said this could undermine chances of reaching an internationally backed two-state solution, in which a viable Palestinian state would coexist with Israel.

The premier, who travels to Berlin for an international conference on Palestinian security, said he would issue a call for international support for his efforts to bolster the Palestinian police force and justice system in the West Bank.

"We are looking for help, both technical and financial, in our effort to build up our capacity in that important sphere. I view security as the most basic function that any responsible state should provide for its citizens," he said.

Under the so-called roadmap peace plan drafted by the international community five years ago which Israel and the Palestinians accepted as the basis of their renewed peace efforts, Israel is supposed to freeze settlement activity while the Palestinians take steps to boost security.

To that end, the Palestinians have already deployed security personnel in the city of Nablus and other formerly restive areas of the northern West Bank.

GCC Secretary General Abdul-rahman bin Hamad Al-attiyah expressed hope the declared truce between Israel and Hamas would put an end to aggressions on the Palestinian people and lead to lifting the unjust siege imposed on Gaza strip.

In a statement, Al-attiyah urged both Fatah and Hamas movements to anchor national unity for the sake of the Palestinian people's interests. He also reiterated the GCC countries support to the Palestinians until they win back their legitimate rights and set up their independent state with Al-Quds as its capital.

Iyad bin Ameen Madani, Minister of Culture and Information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, underscored the importance of the decisions and recommendations taken by the 41st session of the Arab Information Ministers Council concerning the follow up of the joint Arab information activity abroad and the media support for the Arab issues, especially the Palestinian issue as well as setting up a mechanism to activate the principles of organizing satellite transmission in the Arab region.

In a statement, Madani said the satellite transmission organizing principles document was endorsed on bases of domestic legislations of each Arab country.

Among the decisions taken was a call for the Arab League Secretary General to form a General Commission for Arab Information, he said. Madani said the Council also recommended that the Arab media plan for external activities should go ahead without waiting for overdue payments by some Arab countries. Should we start now, this might trigger them to pay, he added.

The Arab Information Ministers agreed 19/6/2008 during the 41st session of Arab Information Ministers' meeting in Cairo on establishing a multilingual Arab Satellite TV Channel.

They urged Arab media bodies to be meticulous in choosing programs and films screened to stave off tarnishing the Arab image and focus on combating terror and serving the Palestinian cause.

At the end of the meetings chaired by Information Minister Anas El-Fiqi, Arab Ministers called on Arab programs to focus on celebrating selecting East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as the capital of Arab culture for 2009.

Within this context, the Arab identity of Al-Quds should be underlined with a review of the city's history and the Israeli measures aimed to Judaize it. Israel's digging works in the vicinity of Al-Quds Mosque should also be highlighted.

The Arab Ministers called for repairing the Palestinian radio and TV stations shelled by Israel.

They also called for putting in the limelight the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.

The Arab ministers urged offering media support to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia.

A team of experts will be formed to filter out fake concepts from Arab media, the ministers said.

They endorsed the bylaws of an Arab e-media committee and the Arab League General Secretariat will take all needed measures for the committee to come into effect.

Addressing the session, El-Fiqi said an Arab mechanism is needed to regulate satellite transmission; radio and TV.

He suggested an Arab commission or council be formed for the purpose, but Youssef Al-Ahmed, Syria's permanent representative at the Arab League, said the satellite transmission document should be referential and not obligatory.

Its application should be left for Arab states to decide on separately.

Chinese Information Minister Wang Chen has, meanwhile, called for boosting media cooperation with his country.

He said Beijing is ready to exert utmost efforts to enhance Sino-Arab cooperation.

The first Sino-Arab Cooperation Forum was held in the Chinese capital two months ago to uplift cooperation between China and member states of the Arab League.

In Qalqilia, Israeli forces backed by more than fifteen military jeeps invaded the northern West Bank city and imposed a curfew in many neighborhoods.

They also demolished a house and damaged another one.

Palestinian security sources said that Israeli forces invaded the city at 3 am local time backed by more than fifteen military jeeps and one military bulldozer and were deployed in the neighborhoods of Shreem and Daoud. They demolished the home of 'Aqel Hasaneen Hajul.

Local eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli forces carried out house to house searches.

Israeli forces detained two civilians in Ad-Deheisheh and Al-Azzeh refugee camps near Bethlehem.

Eyewitnesses said that an Israeli force stormed Ad-Deheisheh camp and detained 17-year-old Isma’il Khalil Ash-Shathli after searching his house and rifling through his property.

In Al-Azzeh refugee camp Israeli forces detained 23-year-old Usama Ribhi Abu She’ireh and transferred him to an unknown destination.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that Israeli forces intensified their deployment around Rachel’s Tomb and the northern entrance to Bethlehem city.