Israel Mulls Temporary Truce

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Israel Mulls Temporary Truce
December 30, 2008
Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel is considering suspending its Gaza offensive for 48 hours to give Hamas militants an opening to halt their rocket fire, but the threat of a ground offensive remains if the truce does not hold, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to raise the proposal during a meeting Tuesday night with the prime minister, said two senior officials in Barak's office who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to make the information public.

Talk of a truce seemed to be the outcome of a strong diplomatic push, particularly from Europe and the United Nations. European Union foreign ministers were scheduled to gather in Paris on Tuesday evening for an urgent meeting on the crisis in Gaza, with France and Germany both seeking a cease-fire.

In two phone calls to Barak on Monday and Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed to the Israeli defense minister to consider a truce to allow humanitarian relief supplies to enter the beleaguered Gaza Strip, the officials said.

A Hamas spokesman said any halt to militant rocket and mortar fire would require an end to Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. "If they halt the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions," said Mushir Masri.


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