Israel, Hamas, Palestinians Agree To Talks

Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Says "Representatives From All Sides" In Gaza Conflict Will Meet In Cairo Thursday

(CBS/AP)  Egypt's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials Thursday for talks on the Gaza crisis.

Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz told reporters that "representatives of all sides" planned to send technical delegations to Cairo to discuss an Egyptian-French initiative to end the fighting in Gaza.

He said the delegations would each meet with Egyptian officials, but the parties would not necessarily sit down in the same room together.

"The issue here is that for anything to start, there has to be some positive move. And the positive move is the cease-fire," he said, referring to the U.N. and Gaza.

The plan calls for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict for a limited period to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said Israel and the moderate Palestinian Authority - Hamas' rival - accepted the plan though it is not a direct party to the conflict. However, Hamas officials in Syria told CBS News that they could not agree to the plan because it does not guarantee open border crossings or an end to a crippling blockade.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was supporting the Egyptian-French initiative.

Rice said she discussed "the importance of moving that initiative forward" with Arab ministers attending emergency Security Council meetings at U.N. headquarters on the Gaza crisis as well as the Israelis.

Abdelaziz said the talks will shape whether the U.N. Security Council agrees to a council resolution, as Arab nations want, or a lesser statement issued by the 15-nation council's president, as the U.S., Britain and France have proposed.

The proposal that Rice and the French and British foreign ministers are circulating has several main points: it calls for "immediate and durable ceasefire" the prevention of illegal trade, and the reopening of crossing points. The Arab League appears to want to have a vote on a more binding resolution - even if it means the U.S. will veto it, reports CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk at the U.N.

"We're not interested in a piece of paper," he said. "Egypt is receiving technical delegations from all parties. I understand some of them are arriving today, some of them are arriving tomorrow" in Cairo.

In Syria, Hamas spokesman Abu Omar told CBS News' George Baghdadi that Hamas could only agree to a plan which guaranteed to end the economic blockade and to reopen the border crossings as soon as hostilities on both sides were halted; what he called a "complete package."

Israel has no direct contacts with Hamas, but Mashaal indicated earlier Wednesday for the first time an apparent willingness to "contribute in reaching a solution to stop the aggression in Gaza." (Click here to read more on this from George Baghdadi in the World Watch blog.)

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets resumed after a brief pause to allow food and fuel to reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where an Israeli warplane dropped leaflets urging some residents to flee because of imminent attacks.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports the Israelis called it a "recess in offensive operations" -- but this was a recess in which nobody went outside to play. Instead the besieged people of Gaza came out to get what they need to survive.

A convoy of about 80 trucks loaded with relief supplies was allowed to enter the strip, Phillips reports.

Even as the Israeli government tentatively welcomed the cease-fire proposal from Egypt and France, its military was instructed to continue its assault on Hamas.

Israeli strikes in response to continued Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel have killed at least 688 Palestinians since Dec. 27, including around 350 civilians, among them 130 children, according to Palestinian officials.

The Israelis have released footage of prisoners they've captured and they continue to weaken Hamas, but they have not gotten near its leadership or apparently broken its will, Phillips reports. Yet the Israeli Cabinet has put off a decision whether to go to a further phase of this operation and push forward into the urban areas to seek out Hamas fighters.

Israel says it has killed at least 130 Gaza militants since it launched its ground offensive Saturday. Ten Israelis have been killed since the fighting began, including three civilians.

CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports that if you want to understand what pushed Israelis past their limit, they'll tell you just take a look at the numbers - since the first one almost eight years ago, the army says more than 11,000 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at southern Israel.

They've landed as far as 25 miles beyond the Gaza border, Roth reports, putting as many as a million people in range - and in fear.

On Wednesday, 29 Palestinians were killed, including at least 22 civilians and two Islamic Jihad militants, medics said. In one incident, a family of four was killed in an airstrike on their car, medics said.

In the Jebaliya refugee camp, there was a mass funeral for 40 people killed Tuesday by Israeli mortar fire toward a U.N. school. Israel said it was responding to an attack by Hamas militants who fired mortar shells from an area near the school.

The bodies, wrapped in blankets, were laid out in a long row on the ground, with mourners kneeling in prayer before them.

Israel carried out 40 airstrikes Wednesday on targets including smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border, Israel's chief army spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu said.

[jediservant]

Part 3

It is stunning to realize that more than three years since we pulled out of the Gaza Strip, evacuated our soldiers, and erased any sign of the small Jewish settlements there, we are still regarded as the aggressive occupiers! For three years the people of Gaza have been left to rule themselves, rebuild their city, and create better lives with no interference. In this time, the world community has poured millions of dollars and Euros into Gaza to establish services like education, health, welfare, commerce, and industry. This great three year opportunity has been wasted, for nothing has been accomplished except producing weapons, smuggling arms, training militants, and, most of all, shooting thousands of missiles at us. Did the international community ever demand that these terrorists stop? Did it ever demand a report of what has been done with the millions contributed to Gaza? No! When hypocrisy is the name of the game, this is what results.
I can understand the average person being unaware of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza three years ago and of the fact that there is no justification to fire missiles at us. But for state leaders worldwide to fail to understand that it is time to stand strong against terror is nothing but stupidity and a clear expression of their weakness. They are inviting terrorism to their own countries, because if there is one thing that terrorism is capable of identifying, it is weakness in the leadership of its victims.

[jsklinemn]

There are a lot of Palestinians who want no part of Hamas, but until you can get them to safety and bomb the snot out of Hamas and its followers, nothing will change at all. A terrorist is a terrorist. This has been visited over and over again. Your going to have to eradicate the cancer that is plaguing Palestine and Gaza.

[dbaker13-2009]

how do you negotiate with a terrorist?be real, kill em at the table.kill em all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rhs648]

We have been there before. Anything short of an unconditional peace by the Palestinians will not work. It just gives them time to rebuild strength for the next time. The Palestinians know what it takes for peace. Lay down your weapons and stop sending suicide bombers and missiles into Israel. Ceasefires are meaningless and have never led to peace with Israel. It is that simple.

[voidmaster-2009]

It would be a terrible mistake for Israel to cease fire as long as Hamas still exists.

[comeon11]

FloydZeppd, Baghdad.....................bitter?

[rusure5]

Re: "the reason the Israelis cant "win the war" is because they have a conscience."

Posted by azirine

This does not appear to be the case, since they are targeting and killing mostly civilians.

You continue to suggest that more Palestinian civilians should be killed. With this in mind, it seems that you are a poor judge of anyone''s conscience.

[rusure5]

Re: "Heck, they could (and should) have just kept going until nothing in Gaza moved."

Posted by azirine

Are you suggesting that more than one million Palestinian civilians should be killed?

[rusure5]

Re: "You wanted me to cite a case of Palestinians turning weapons on Americans."

Posted by azirine

Yes. Can you cite any examples to support your claim?

[louthesz9]

You know, I just can''t care anymore, I just cannot work myself to care anymore. I forced myself to watch it. I forced myself to read it. And I just have no emotion, I don''t care. I remember when I was a little kid in the mid to late 70''s, and the Palestinians and Israelis were fighting each other. Let''s face it, there will always be a faction within Palestine and Gaza that will be violent until all Jews are driven out of Israel. They want the entire place back. They''re just gonna fight like this for the rest of our lives and everybody else would have moved on. There will always be a faction that''ll make trouble no matter what truces, peace accords, or decisions are made. You turn on the cable news and they got the experts and they say "we gotta negotiate", "we have to have a diplomatic solution", blah, blah, blah,.... SHUT UP. JUST SHUT UP!!

[whitemale08]

The British support the Likud party much like it supported the Nazi party back in WW2.

[rusure5]

RE: "The USS Liberty was, of course an error, owing to it''s being in the vicinity of the Suez even though we had reproted no vessels in the area."

Posted by azirine

The Israeli attack on the Liberty appears to have been intentional, carried out over an extended period, and leaving 34 US soldiers dead as a result.

But even if it wasn''t, if the Israelis are really that incompetent, should we be trusting them with our most sophisticated weapons?

Re: "Palestinians...turn weapons on US at every opportunity in Iraq."

That is the first that I have seen this claim.

Can you cite any examples of this?

Don''t the Iraqis have the right to defend themselves against the brutal, illegal, and fraud-based invasion of their country?

[whitemale08]

Palestinians and their muslim "brothers" turn weapons on US at every opportunity in Iraq. or did you forget that there are Palestinians in Iraq?




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Posted by azirine at 01:53 AM : Jan 08, 2009--

How come Bush and junkyard dog Sean Hannity refuse to show the ''blue thumbs'' of Palestinians voting in Israel?

[whitemale08]

Palestinians and their muslim "brothers" turn weapons on US at every opportunity in Iraq. or did you forget that there are Palestinians in Iraq?




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Posted by azirine at 01:53 AM : Jan 08, 2009--

Why won''t you call for democracy in Israel by telling them to stop disinfranchizing Palestinians right to vote?

[ajaxtheleast]

Isriel and Hamas agree to talk,,,,meaning?

It means once again he forgot.

Every few months he forgets.

So every few months Bush has to be again shown

that killing people at a rate of 20-percent

bad guys and 80-percent innocent citizens

of a country needs work as a

problem-solveing tool.

[n8yvn29]

It''s too bad this blog is dominated by Israeli operatives trying to keep/sway U.S. opinion their way. You can not blame Israel for paying bloggers to help them get good PR and support (obscene amounts of money depend on keeping American support), but their attempt to intimidate any pro-Palestinians bloggers on this blog through name-calling, belittling and insults is un-American. Our country was founded on freedom of expression, and if there is anything Americans generally resent, it is having their freedom of speech curtailed, especially by intimidation.

[whitemale08]

way of using those weapons against us, haha.




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Posted by azirine at 01:38 AM : Jan 08, 2009--

Why don''t you say Israel should allow Palestinians to vote?

That would solve the problem instantly.

But it''s because deep down inside you believe like the Nazis and believe apartheid is better don''t ya?

[whitemale08]

Most Americans seem to share this opinion.


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Posted by rusure5 at 01:37 AM : Jan 08, 2009--

Exactly,

Americans are being suckered again by the likes of Darth Cheney and the neo-cons who use the holocaust as an excuse to financially support apartheid.

Darth Cheney was a supporter of apartheid in South Africa too.

If it''''''''s a "neutral position", then how in the world is it "supporting" Israel?

Posted by hadenough43 at 01:33 AM : Jan 08, 2009





How do you figure the "world" is supporting Israel?!?!

Because England and America do?!?!

Since when are England and America, considered "the world"?

Posted by hungry681
--------------------
Better go back and read it again, dude.

[rusure5]

Re: "We don;t give them military aid, as we do to Israel, because they have a nasty way of using those weapons against us"

Posted by azirine

We''ve seen the Israelis use these weapons against the US, such as in the case of the USS Liberty, but I don''t think that the Palestinians ever have.

Can you cite any examples?