Top Defense Ministry official: Gaza truce has no expiration date

A senior Israeli defense official told Channel 2 news on Monday that it had been explicitly agreed that no date would be set for the end of the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

"In the end, the test is the calm and the benefit the residents have had for long months, even though it is relative calm," said Major General Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's political-security bureau.

Hamas, however, define the truce as a six-month trial, set to expire on December 16. Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal says the truce will not be renewed when it runs out Friday.

Over the past month, Palestinian militants in Gaza have resumed rocket fire at Israel's south.

Meanwhile Monday, London-based Arabic language newspaper Al Hayyat reported that Egyptian officials believe Hamas and the other Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip will agree to continue their truce with Israel.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that if Hamas did not renew the truce, Israel would likely carry out a military offensive on the coastal territory and perhaps attempt to assassinate senior officials in the Islamic movement.

Israel warned Hamas on Sunday that any rocket fire emanating from the territory will be met with a military response as both sides ratchet up the rhetoric ahead of an expiring ceasefire along the Gaza frontier.

"There will be no unilateral fire from Gaza at Israel," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office declared in a press statement. "If Hamas is interested in continuing the lull, it will be only on the terms of the original agreement" meaning that Hamas must enforce the truce on other factions.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni echoed these sentiments at a meeting with her Austrian counterpart, saying: "All fire from Gaza will obligate us to respond so as to defend our citizens. We will not leave Gaza in Hamas' hands."

"If Hamas continues to foment terror from Gaza, Israel will act via the means at its disposal," she added, without elaborating.

The truce has all but collapsed, with rockets and mortars being fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip almost daily.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Gaza has taken a less definite line than his Syria-based colleague on the future of the truce.

And even Meshal, while declaring in a television interview to mark the 21st anniversary of Hamas' founding that "there will be no renewal of the calm after it expires," added that the organization would monitor events in Israel before resuming full-scale hostilities.

Haniyeh, who was addressing a massive anniversary rally in Gaza, attended by almost 200,000 people, sounded as if he were leaning strongly against extending the truce. "The siege has not been lifted and the [border] crossings have not been opened," he said. "The factions met and discussed the future of the lull, and their impression of the lull has been negative."

However, he declined to say explicitly that the truce would end. Later, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza issued a statement stressing that Hamas was still discussing the issue.

Another senior Hamas official in Gaza, Osama al-Muzzeini, explained: "The lull will not be renewed as long as there is no genuine Israeli commitment to abide by its terms. There is nothing to encourage us to continue upholding the agreement, which has not brought us the results for which we hoped."

That view could change, he said, if Israel's attitude changes. "If the occupier's position changes, it will be studied," he said.

Israel informed Egyptian mediators on Sunday that it would like to extend the truce. Amos Gilad delivered this message to Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo.

Gilad noted that Israel rejects Hamas' view that the truce is set to expire this Friday. The agreement reached last June included no expiration date, he insisted. The Egyptians previously supported Israel's interpretation.

Nevertheless, Gilad continued, Israel will support extending the truce only if Hamas once again enforces a complete cease-fire. In recent weeks, though it has largely refrained from firing at Israel itself, Hamas has allowed other Palestinian groups to do so almost daily. On Sunday, for instance, Palestinians fired one Qassam rocket and three mortar shells at the Negev, though none caused any casualties or damage.

If Hamas does not restore complete calm, Gilad warned, Israel will respond forcefully.

At the rally, Haniyeh - who was hailed by the crowd as "the next president of the Palestinian people" - also took aim at the rival Palestinian faction, Fatah, which controls the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Haniyeh declared, will have no legitimacy to remain in office after January 9, when his term officially ends.

Abbas has been considering extending his term on the grounds that Hamas' takeover of Gaza last year means that the PA, whose power has been lost in the Strip, has no way of organizing new elections there.

Other Hamas leaders at the rally derided Fatah members as "rats."

And speaker after speaker stressed that Hamas would never recognize Israel. Haniyeh himself promised Israeli Arabs, "we'll get to you" - a hint that Israel would be eliminated, enabling Hamas to extend its rule to Israeli Arabs as well.

One Hamas activist marked the event by producing an effigy of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and having the effigy beg to return home. "I miss my mommy and daddy," the activist whined in Hebrew.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Vice Premier Haim Ramon attacked Defense Minister Ehud Barak for having sent Amos Gilad to Cairo. "It's not proper to send Amos Gilad to conduct negotiations in Egypt over continuing the lull before the cabinet has made a decision on whether it even wants to continue the lull," Ramon said.

But Barak insisted that there was nothing improper in the visit; it was merely part of Israel's ongoing security consultations with Egypt, he said.

Meanwhile, despite the harsh anti-Fatah rhetoric at Sunday's rally in Gaza, several current and former lawmakers from both Hamas and Fatah announced that they are planning a petition drive to urge the rival factions to reconcile.

The petition is to be launched on Monday in the West Bank city of Nablus, and organizers said they hope to collect 100,000 signatures quickly and eventually get up to one million. The document asks Hamas and Fatah to stop media attacks on each other, release political prisoners and organize a new round of reconciliation talks.

Reconciliation talks had been slated to take place in Cairo last month, but Hamas pulled out at the last minute, demanding that the PA first release Hamas prisoners.