Sealing Egypt border ‘key to Gaza ceasefire’
A ceasefire in the Gaza strip could be secured within days if the smuggling routes that supply arms and money to Hamas can be blocked off, Tony Blair said today as Israel moved its forces deeper into southern Gaza.
But the entire region should brace itself for a “protracted campaign” if the border between the Gaza strip and Egypt – through which Hamas militants are supplied – is not secured, Mr Blair warned.
Israel today demanded that Hamas be prevented from rearming as a main condition of any ceasefire. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Prime Minister, said: “That is the make-or-break issue.”
Mr Blair, the Middle East envoy, said Hamas and Egypt are in contact over the supply routes that run through the Egyptian border into the Palestinian enclave and Cairo is prepared in principle to take action in order to dry up the flow of missiles and guns into the area.
A delegation from Hamas was today in Cairo to discuss a ceasefire with Israel as proposed by Egypt. The talks with the Palestinian delegation, headed by Emad al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr from Hamas’s Syrian-based political leadership, represent the first such contact since fighting began.
“We will speak with Egyptian leaders about the aggression in Gaza,” Mr Nasr said. “Our position is clear: end the aggression, withdraw (Israeli forces) from Gaza, open the crossing points, especially Rafah, with a total lifting of the blockade.”
The Hamas delegation was to meet Egyptian intelligence officials, headed by Omar Suleiman, a security official said. “We asked for a Hamas delegation with capability and authority to be sent to examine how a ceasefire can be achieved,” Ahmed Abul Gheit Egyptian Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying in the state-owned Al-Ahram daily.
The destruction of Egypt-Gaza tunnels around Rafah is a key Israeli objective in the war, aimed at preventing Hamas being able to re-arm with rockets.
Tunnels are however also a conduit for food supplies and basic needs, such as medicines, for many of the 1.5 million people in the territory which has been under tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months.
The casualty toll escalated after a further night of fierce and increasingly chaotic battle which saw Israel intensify its ground offensive. Three Israeli soldiers were killed and 30 wounded in a “friendly fire” incident, when the building they were occupying was hit by one of their own tanks. The Israelis today moved troops into Khan Younis in southern Gaza widening the ground assault it launched four days ago after a week of air strikes failed to stamp out cross-border rocket fire.
While international discussions to reach a cessation of violence continued, an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians in a United Nations-run school where people had sought refuge from the fighting, medical officials said.
Israel said it had killed 130 Hamas fighters since it launched the ground offensive on Saturday night, as the Islamist guerrillas fought pitched street battles using mortars, rockets grenades and small arms. The conflict has so far claimed more than 500 lives – a quarter of them civilians according to the UN.
A delegation from Hamas was today in Cairo to discuss a ceasefire with Israel as proposed by Egypt. The talks with the Palestinian delegation, headed by Emad al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr from Hamas’s Syrian-based political leadership, represent the first such contact since fighting began.
“We will speak with Egyptian leaders about the aggression in Gaza,” Mr Nasr said. “Our position is clear: end the aggression, withdraw (Israeli forces) from Gaza, open the crossing points, especially Rafah, with a total lifting of the blockade.”
The Hamas delegation was to meet Egyptian intelligence officials, headed by Omar Suleiman, a security official said. “We asked for a Hamas delegation with capability and authority to be sent to examine how a ceasefire can be achieved,” Ahmed Abul Gheit Egyptian Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying in the state-owned Al-Ahram daily.
The destruction of Egypt-Gaza tunnels around Rafah is a key Israeli objective in the war, aimed at preventing Hamas being able to re-arm with rockets.
Tunnels are however also a conduit for food supplies and basic needs, such as medicines, for many of the 1.5 million people in the territory which has been under tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months.
The casualty toll escalated after a further night of fierce and increasingly chaotic battle which saw Israel intensify its ground offensive. Three Israeli soldiers were killed and 30 wounded in a “friendly fire” incident, when the building they were occupying was hit by one of their own tanks. The Israelis today moved troops into Khan Younis in southern Gaza widening the ground assault it launched four days ago after a week of air strikes failed to stamp out cross-border rocket fire.
While international discussions to reach a cessation of violence continued, an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians in a United Nations-run school where people had sought refuge from the fighting, medical officials said.
Israel said it had killed 130 Hamas fighters since it launched the ground offensive on Saturday night, as the Islamist guerrillas fought pitched street battles using mortars, rockets grenades and small arms. The conflict has so far claimed more than 500 lives – a quarter of them civilians according to the UN.
All “responsible” players in the region should be working towards an immediate cessation of the hostilities which have now entered their 11th day, the Mr Blair said.
The former Prime Minister spoke from Jerusalem where he is working as a peace envoy for the quartet the EU, UN, US and Russia, involved in brokering peace in the Middle East.
Mr Blair, who yesterday spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are circumstances in which we could get an immediate ceasefire, and that is what people want to see.
“These circumstances focus very much around clear action to cut off the supply of arms and money through the tunnels that go from Egypt into Gaza.
“I think if there were strong, clear, definitive action on that, that gives us the best context to give us an immediate ceasefire and start to change this situation.
“From my conversations, not just with Tzipi Livni but the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister and others, I think that is the one basis on which we could bring a quick halt to this. Otherwise, I think we are in for a protracted campaign.”
European foreign policy chief Javier Solana has indicated that Europe would be prepared to monitor Rafah. During a stop in Egypt yesterday Mr Solana, who has been touring the Middle East on a diplomatic mission with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, said that European monitors – once stationed on Gaza’s border with Egypt – would be ready to return to work at the crossing after a ceasefire is achieved.
Under a 2005 deal, the Rafah crossing can only be opened to normal traffic if European Union observers and Palestinian security forces are at the border, which is also monitored by Israel.
Mr Blair said that talks on the issue were ongoing within the international community and between Israel and Egypt. And he said that, while he and other international representatives refuse to speak to Hamas, the movement’s leadership in Gaza was well aware of the position from their own discussions with Egypt.
It was “difficult to judge” whether Hamas was ready to take the necessary steps to end the violence, he said.
“If they [Hamas] truly do care about the people in Gaza, there is a possible way through this which would have an immediate halt and cessation of hostilities, and that is obviously what any responsible person should try to achieve.
Mr Blair said he had made representations to the Israeli authorities about access for humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
He said: “For anyone living in Gaza, it is hell, it is bound to be. You are in a situation where you are in an effective war zone.
“It is not a very large piece of territory, it is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hamas positions are well dug in actually inside the civilian population, so the notion that having a war going on around Gaza is going to be anything other than a humanitarian catastrophe is absurd, obviously.”
Mr Blair urged Barack Obama, the incoming US President, to engage with the Middle East peace process as soon as he is inaugurated on January 20.
“The most important thing for the new administration is to grip this, focus on it,” he said. “It is in my view absolutely central to the security not just of this part of the world, but all the world. We have got to grip it and sort it and if we do that with the requisite dedication and energy and commitment, we can resolve it.”
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