Mashaal wil 'kalmte' Gaza niet verlengen na 19 december

 

Israel is voor verlenging van het staakt-het-vuren, ondanks het feit dat Hamas en Islamitische Jihad de afgelopen maand meer dan 200 raketten en mortiergranaten op Israel hebben afgevuurd. Hamas is echer tegen volgens onderstaand bericht. Wanneer bij gevechten straks meerdere Palestijnen omkomen, bedenk dan dat dit een bewuste keuze was van Hamas, dat blijkbaar uit is op een confrontatie.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Dec 14, 2008 14:32 | Updated Dec 14, 2008 17:54

Mashaal announces 'calm' will not be extended after Dec. 19
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728192418&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Senior Hamas officials in Syria announced that the Gaza cease-fire with Israel, set to expire on December 19, would not be extended, Reuters reported Sunday.

Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was quoted on Sunday afternoon by a Hamas television station in Damascus as saying, "There will be no renewal of the 'calm' after it expires."

Following the announcement, senior officials in Jerusalem told Army Radio that both the IDF and the government were well prepared to deal with any decision reached by the terror group.

"We have used the 'calm' period to prepare and we have many surprises," the officials said.

Earlier Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak dispatched Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad to Cairo for talks on extending the cease-fire.

Barak supports the extension of the truce, despite the firing of over 200 mortars and rockets into Israel in the past month.

Top IDF officers, however, have called for the resumption of military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip when the six-month cease-fire expires on Friday.

 

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report