Region | Palestinian Territories
Hamas ends Gaza truce with Israel
Hamas said on Sunday that a troubled Cairo-brokered truce with Israel was unlikely to be renewed when it runs out this week, as former US president Jimmy Carter met the exiled leader of the Palestinian group for the second time this year to discuss the escalating crisis.
- By Sami Moubayed, Correspondent
- Published: 18:11 December 14, 2008
Damascus: Hamas said on Sunday that a troubled Cairo-brokered truce with Israel was unlikely to be renewed when it runs out this week, as former US president Jimmy Carter met the exiled leader of the Palestinian group for the second time this year to discuss the escalating crisis.
A spokesman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his government was keen to see the truce extended beyond Thursday provided Hamas kept its side of the bargain and halted rocket and mortar fire against southern Israel.
"It is most likely that the truce will not be renewed," Hamas political supremo Khalid Mesha'al said from his base in exile in the Syrian capital.
Mesha'al made the remark in an interview with the Lebanon-based television channel Al Quds to mark the 21st anniversary of the group's founding.
The ceasefire has already been marred by persistent tit-for-tat violence in recent weeks and complaints by Hamas that Israel had failed to keep its side of the bargain by not easing its crippling blockade of the aid-dependent Gaza Strip.
For Sunday's anniversary, Hamas staged a show of strength, drawing huge crowds on the streets of Gaza City that Hamas television said ran into the hundreds of thousands.
Ahead of the rally, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum warned: "There is no sense in extending the truce while the enemy is not respecting it and is keeping Gaza in a state of siege."
Earlier yesterday, Carter wrapped up his fifth visit to Syria, promising a "new opportunity" to resolve tension between the US and Syria with the upcoming Obama administration and hinted that a US ambassador would soon be dispatched to Syria.
Carter's talks with Mesha'al were supposed to be focused on the Israeli blockade and captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Carter and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on Saturday discussed "the tragedy facing people in the Gaza Strip because of the unjust blockade imposed by Israel," the official Syrian news agency reported.
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