truth Israeli defense force (Israeli army)

Please U Tube,destroy immediately all the material from The murderders of Israel,nobody wants to insult these murdered Palestinian children.

http://www.mucjs.org/links.htm#15

Hamas has seized control of all the smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving additional arms into the Strip since Operation Cast Lead ended on Sunday morning.


Palestinians at the opening of a smuggling tunnel on the Egyptian border.


Slideshow: Pictures of the week During the three-week operation, the IDF destroyed 80 percent of the 300 tunnels that Hamas is believed to have dug under the 14-kilometer stretch of land separating Gaza and Egypt.

Some of the tunnels were not destroyed - like the one that was filmed by foreign media on Wednesday - out of humanitarian considerations.

Several tunnels have pipes that transfer fuel from Sinai to Gaza. The concern in the IDF was that if it bombed such a tunnel, a huge explosion would result - possibly also on the Egyptian side - and civilian casualties.

The IDF was also concerned that if a fuel tunnel were bombed, Hamas would respond by attacking the Nahal Oz fuel depot where there are gas canisters and fuel tankers, which if detonated would cause major collateral damage in Gaza and Israel.

The tunnels in Rafah are usually run by local Palestinian clans, and Hamas's decision to take control is believed to be part of the group's attempts to reestablish its regime in Gaza. Hamas can now decide what is smuggled into the Strip and give priority to weapons and explosives.



On Wednesday night, CBS News reported that the US Navy had intercepted an Iranian ship in the Red Sea carrying arms allegedly on their way to Gaza. Israel is concerned that Iran will try to transfer long-range Fajr missiles to Hamas capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

Also on Wednesday, Hamas commandeered the trucks carrying humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip as part of its effort to show that it is providing for the Palestinian people.

Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Hamas had also taken over a mental hospital in Gaza City and had kicked out the patients to use the facility as a jail for Fatah supporters.

The officials said Hamas was concerned that Fatah would try to take advantage of its weakened state and attempt to take back control over Gaza. During Operation Cast Lead, Hamas imposed curfews on predominantly Fatah neighborhoods and executed any Fatah member seen on the street.

Also on Thursday, Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, was in Cairo for talks about Gilad Schalit and the new anti-smuggling mechanism.

The new mechanism Israel had set up with the Egyptians to counter the smuggling of weaponry and explosives into the Gaza Strip consists of three layers - intelligence cooperation, obstacles in Sinai and the deployment of new tunnel-detection technology along the border. Defense officials said Gilad would likely travel to Egypt every other week to oversee the mechanism's effectiveness.

'Israel offers open crossings, 1,000 prisoners for Schalit'
By JPOST.COM STAFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND YAAKOV KATZ
Print Subscribe
E-mail Toolbar
Share article:

What's this?



Talkbacks for this article: 0


Israel has offered to open the Gaza crossings and free 1,000 prisoners in exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, Ayman Taha, a member of the Hamas team currently holding talks in Cairo was quoted as saying Monday.


Palestinian youth carry empty cooking gas canisters in order to refill them in Beit Lahia on Sunday.
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Pictures of the week Taha spoke to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Aharam after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

An Israeli defense official had said on Sunday that Jerusalem was considering linking the opening of the Gaza crossings with negotiations for Schalit's release.

"The operation has created new understandings between us and Hamas," one Israeli official explained. "Hamas knows that if it renews attacks we will not be restrained."

RELATED
Hamas proposes 1-year cease-fire
Taha said Sunday that Hamas had rejected an Israeli offer for an 18-month truce. He said the offer had been relayed to Hamas through Suleiman and other Egyptian officials.

Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri said that the group was prepared to reach a one-year truce with Israel if the border crossings into Gaza are opened.



He said that the Hamas delegation currently holding talks with Egyptian government officials made it clear that the movement would not agree to a long-term or permanent truce.

"Hamas has proposed a one-year truce that would be evaluated [by Hamas] when it expires," Masri said. "We are talking about a temporary truce that would be contingent on the reopening of all the border crossings, including the Rafah terminal, and lifting the blockade."

A permanent truce would "contradict Hamas's right to pursue the resistance for as long as the occupation exists," he said.

However, Masri said the truce issue had nothing to do with Schalit.

"The Israeli soldier is not linked in any way to the issue of the truce or the border crossings," he said. "Rather, the case of the soldier is connected to a future prisoner exchange. No one should dream that Schalit will see his family if the border crossings aren't reopened."

However, according to Palestinian sources quoted in the London-based pan-Arab daily A-Sharq al-Awsat, considerable progress has been made toward a deal to free Schalit, which could go through within three weeks if Israel changes its position on freeing prisoners with "blood on their hands."


Print Subscribe
E-mail Toolbar