[Ha'aretz] Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff - The Israel Defense Forces and Islamic Jihad have resumed fighting. Hamas, in contrast, is thus far keeping a low profile: It is not firing rockets itself, but neither is it trying to stop Islamic Jihad from doing so. Egypt is continuing its mediation efforts, but the gaps on critical issues (opening the Gaza border crossings, continued IDF operations in the West Bank) seem difficult to bridge. All the relevant security bodies acknowledge that a significant reduction in the rocket fire can be achieved only by a prolonged presence of ground forces in the parts of northern Gaza that serve as launching zones.
2008-03-17 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive