Olmert, Mubarak discuss Gaza truce

The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian groups including Hamas, the largest Palestinian armed group, came into effect on Thursday.

Israeli forces have not entered the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since the truce took effect and has started to lift some restrictions on Gaza, easing the effects of a crippling economic blockade of the territory.

Egypt brokered the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as Tel Aviv rejects direct contact with the Palestinian organisation.

Olmert criticised

Olmert has been criticised at home for not making the truce conditional upon Hamas releasing Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured by them in 2006.

The Israeli prime minister has said that the deal includes a commitment by Hamas to make progress towards Shalit’s release.

Regev said: “The issue of Gilad Shalit will be raised.

“Both states have a joint interest in putting this issue behind us. Ultimately, we want to see the situation in Gaza stabilised.”

Amr el-Kahky, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sharm el Sheikh, said that both sides were entering into talks expected to last two-weeks concerning a prisoner exchange including Shalit and thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

He said that the main issue would be the release of certain Palestinian prisoners whom Israel deem to have blood on their hands, but whom the Palestinians see as resistance fighters.

Israel has also called for Egypt to help stop the smuggling of weapons from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula into Gaza.

Ismail Haniya, a senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian prime minister, said on Monday that it was premature to judge whether the truce had been a success.

“It is too early to judge whether the occupation is adhering or not adhering to the understandings reached 10 days ago,” Haniya said.

Haniya said his Hamas-run administration was “monitoring what is coming into the Gaza Strip and is in daily contact with our brothers in Egypt” to see that Israel eases its Gaza blockade.

El-Khaky said: “The re-opening of the Rafah border crossing [from Gaza to Egypt] is a pressure card that Israel is playing to try to secure and speed up the release of Gilad Shalit.”

Lamis Andoni, an Al Jazeera middle east analyst, said: “The killings are a reminder that the truce in Gaza will remain shaky all the time it is not extended to include the West Bank.

“Israeli insistence on retaining freedom to conduct arrests and raids in the West Bank further undermines president Mahmoud Abbas’ standing and makes it difficult for Hamas to demand Palestinian fighters adhere to the truce in Gaza.”

West Bank violence

In the West Bank town of Nablus, which the ceasefire does not cover, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians on Tuesday.

Israeli troops killed the men in an exchange of fire, an Israeli military spokesman said, adding that one of them was a fighter from Islamic Jihad and the other was a “militant”.

Locals have said that one of the men was a bystander killed by Israeli troops when he opened his apartment door next door to the location of the raid.

A mortar shell was also fired into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip the previous evening, the Israeli army said, in the first such incident since the truce came into effect.

No one was hurt by the missile, which landed in the Nahal Oz area after being launched from the central Gaza Strip, officials said on Tuesday.

“We are familiar with a mortar shell that landed near the security fence in northern Gaza on the Israeli side,” an army spokeswoman said.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the reported incident on Monday evening, nor any confimation from Palestinian sources that such an incident took place.

Observers have said that both sides do not regard the incident as a violation of the ceasefire.