Gaza Cease-Fire Talks Falter Amid Violence

Israeli Envoy Returns From Talks With No Deal As Explosion Prompts New Exchange Of Fire

(CBS/ AP)  An Israeli envoy engaging in Gaza cease-fire talks returned without a deal late Thursday, after another day of bloodshed in the coastal territory that included seven Palestinians being killed in an explosion that Hamas indicated was an accident.

When the explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip, killing the seven, Hamas blamed Israel and unleashed rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. But the militant group, which has controlled Gaza the past year, later suggested the blast was accidental.

An announcement Friday on the official Web site of Hamas' military wing said the group's "martyrs" died "while putting the final touches on a plan to carry out a special holy war mission."

Five militants were among those who died in the explosion that flattened the house Thursday. Dozens of gunmen have been killed while handing explosives in recent years.

By then Israel had carried out an air strike aimed at a Gaza rocket squad, killing a Palestinian. Two other Israeli military operations in Gaza killed five more militants.

Clashes in and around Gaza are putting a strain on Egypt's effort to arrange a truce by acting as a go-between because Israel has no contacts with Hamas, which has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide attacks and rejects the Jewish state's right to exist.

The main sticking point, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger, is Israel's demand that Hamas release a captive Israeli soldier held for two years in Gaza. But Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return.

Israeli officials said envoy Amos Gilad told Egyptian mediators in Cairo that Israel wants progress toward freeing the soldier as well as a commitment by Egypt to stop arms smuggling across its border with Gaza.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contacts are supposed to be private, said no agreement was reached Thursday.

Berger reports Israel says it will give the cease-fire talks two more weeks, but if they fail, it will consider a military assault on Gaza.

Israel blockaded Gaza a year ago after Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis, violently seized control of the territory from security forces affiliated with the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The closure has prevented the vast majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people from leaving and has led to widespread shortages of fuel, electricity and basic goods.

After the Gaza house blew up Thursday, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was not operating in the area at the time. "We deny any connection to this incident," Maj. Avital Leibovich said. Israel's military typically acknowledges such attacks.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said there would be an investigation of the blast and the results would be made public. The statement was taken as a Hamas acknowledgment that the blast was probably accidental, not an Israeli attack.

The blast shook the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, about a mile from the Israeli border. Cars parked nearby were destroyed and covered with dust, and windows of nearby houses and shops were shattered.

"It was a huge explosion," said Majid Abu Samra, a neighbor.

Hamas said seven people were killed, including a 4-month-old girl and a senior aide to the Hamas interior minister. Among the dead were five militants, Hamas said. The owner, Hamas area commander Ahmed Hamouda, was not home at the time of the explosion.

Shortly after the explosion, Hamas said it fired a barrage of mortar shells and rockets toward southern Israel in retaliation. Israel's rescue service said a 59-year-old woman was wounded when a rocket struck a home on an Israeli communal farm.

Militants also tried to break through the border fence in northern Gaza using a bulldozer, the military said, but were driven off by army fire.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, issued an angry response, noting the rocket barrage came just a day after Israel publicly endorsed the Egyptian truce effort. It proved that Hamas "is committed to violence, terror and murder," he said.

Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants in a clash in northern Gaza, and Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry said another person was killed by an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said aircraft hit a rocket squad.

Late Thursday, three Hamas militants were killed by Israeli artillery fire that hit northern Gaza, Hassanain said. The Israeli military said one of its aircraft targeted militants preparing to launch a rocket from a cemetery.

[sistatee-2009]

But wait! This can''t be happening! Bill Clinton brokered peace way back in 1993! Somebody''s lying!

[watcher269-2009]

Wait - this can''t be happening - Bushit and Rice was just there to broker a peace deal a couple months ago.

I think we should just invade and take over the Holy Land for the Christians - while we have the troops there, right?

[terrorislami]

THE NATION WILL LIVE TO REGRET WHAT THE COURT HAS DONE TODAY,,,

VOTE DEMONIC-RAT AT YOUR PERIL,,,

DEMONIC-RAT UN-SUPREME COURT JUDGES TRASH THE CONSTITUTION,,,

Scalia asserted that the decision will have dire consequences. He warned that some detainees will be freed and return to war against America: "The nation will live to regret what the court has done today."

Supreme Court maintains post-9/11 course on Gitmo
The Supreme Court''s 5-4 decision Thursday declaring for the first time that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to a hearing in U.S. courts is a milestone. It also reinforces a familiar court pattern in the post-9/11 world of insisting on judicial review of detainee cases.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2008-06-12-court-pattern_N.htm

[trishab4]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3555139,00.html

According to the Geophysical Institute the first quake, which occurred at about 4 pm, measured 3.9 on the Richter scale, and originated in southern Lebanon.


-Would that be Hizballa detonating some Earth-Shaking, tremor-causing devices? Hummmm!

[pollroller1]

You mean that the peace deal is off? LOL

[checkthepast]

An announcement Friday on the official Web site of Hamas'' military wing said the group''s "martyrs" died "while putting the final touches on a plan to carry out a special holy war mission.".....
When the explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip, killing the seven, Hamas blamed Israel and unleashed rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. But the militant group, which has controlled Gaza the past year, later suggested the blast was accidental.

So when their own bomb explodes in their faces, the "martyrs" friends fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel...

How blind is the world?

[newsjunky5]

I guess it doesn''t matter to them, as long as SOMETHING was blown up in their frenzy. I debated with a Palestinian I know (not sure if he''s a ham-*** or a fat-head variety) about the Munich Olympics. He claimed it was justified simply to draw attention to the Palestinian cause. How callous. So I don''t mind saying -
I think the Palestinians are both amusing and pitiful when Israel gives them back some of their land and they use it to launch attacks. It becomes laughable when they kill themselves trying to do this.
And hilarious but again pitiful when they accidently blow themselves up and mistakenly blame Isreal, then launch a "counter attack" against Isreal. Any empathy for their repressed situation evaporates when this happens. They are repressing themselves. After the explosion there must have been Hamas, hummus, and baba ganouj everywhere! Can you imagine the smell? LMFAO

[newsjunky5]

"But wait! This can''''t be happening! Bill Clinton brokered peace way back in 1993! Somebody''''s lying! Posted by SistaTee "

------------------------------

He did make a peace deal, probably saved a lot of lives. And before that we made a peace deal with the Muslims (Ottoman empire) back in 1918. Why then did they knock down the WTC on 9/11?
Clinton also got rid of the deficit caused by Bush Sr. and gave us a surplus. Where is it now? Somebody IS lying.

[checkthepast]

Concerned08- You got it!!!!

[notblue]

Wish more of those "accidents" would happen. I suppose this is something that will continue to happen as the bombers keep blowing themselves up less experienced terrorists who take their place will have even more accidents, too bad. please sense sarcasm.

[notblue]

Wish more of those "accidents" would happen. I suppose this is something that will continue to happen as the bombers keep blowing themselves up less experienced terrorists who take their place will have even more accidents, too bad. please sense sarcasm.

[newsjunky5]

"Wish more of those "accidents" would happen. I suppose this is something that will continue to happen as the bombers keep blowing themselves up less experienced terrorists who take their place will have even more accidents, too bad. please sense sarcasm. "

------------------------------------

See? You ban books like "The Anarchist''s Handbook" and people have no reference to turn to for safety procedures. Very sloppy work on the part of the Palestinians, I''m happy to say.

"Now watch carefully, I''m only going to show you how to do this once."

[rational_1]

A thousand years from now this will still be going on... unless the whole Middle East turns to glass. What a waste of time, resources and lives.

[checkthepast]

There''s enough sand, just need to apply enough heat...
POOF!! Instant glass.

[terrorislami]

TAKE NO PRISONERS,,,

we have defeated fascist nazi terrorislam before,,,

after america became a country,,, fascist nazi terrorislam demanded that america pay protection money or they would attack americas ships and enslave all on board,,,

thomas jefferson and james madison was having non of that,,, and they sent americas military to kick fascist nazi terrorislams arses in barbary war one and barbary war two,,, why two wars,,, fascist nazi terrorislamists break treaties,,, sound familiar??? can you say iraq,,,

It is a settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none. President James Madison

[Latrocinor]

"peace deal with the Muslims (Ottoman empire)"...Incorrect, this is Turkey.

"Clinton also got rid of the deficit caused by Bush Sr. and gave us a surplus"...Wrong again - the meltdown started in 1997. It was reported on NPR during a panel discussion with US economic pundits in 1997 While Bush was Governor of Texas...

[downsteamjim]

We need Jimuh Carter to go there and rebuild the houses of these wonderful people. He will make sure that all bomb making factories have adjacent day care centers.

[terrorislami]

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. ~D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922

[terrorislami]

USA''''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."-- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

One ought never to turn one''''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke

[terrorislami]

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein

%u201CAdmittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender.%u201D (President Reagan, 1964. Rendezvous with Destiny)

[terrorislami]

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams

Thank You Terrorislami for the great postings!