Rockets Hit Israel, Hamas: Close To Deal

Rockets Still Falling 3 Weeks After Israel Ended Offensive; Hamas Says Deal Just Days Away

(CBS/AP)  Two rockets fired by Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the Israeli town of Sderot Friday, the Israeli military said.

No one was injured and no armed group took responsibility for the attack, which came even as the militant Palestinian group Hamas indicated a peace deal with Israel was just days away.

Rocket fire and shooting incidents along the Gaza-Israel border have persisted since the end of Israel's devastating offensive against Hamas in the territory. Israel halted the operation on Jan. 18 and Hamas declared a cease-fire later the same day.

Friday's rockets came as Hamas officials again said talks in Cairo aimed at achieving a long-term truce to bring quiet to the war-torn Gaza Strip were close to success.

A Hamas delegation is in the Egyptian capital and an Israeli envoy has been flying in periodically from Tel Aviv. Egypt is mediating between Israel and Hamas because the sides will not talk directly to each other.

Late on Thursday, Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Egypt's official MENA news agency that the Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel. He said it would be announced within two days after the group consults with other Palestinian factions, the news agency reported. Abu Marzouk said the deal calls for Israel to reopen its border crossings into Gaza, fulfilling Hamas' central demand.

Marzouk told CBS News George Baghdadi on Sunday that the deal was within reach, stating then that the agreement would include the reopening of boarder crossings and refusing to rule out the possibility that Hamas would free long-time hostage Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by militants more than two years ago. (Click here to read the story in World Watch.)

The border crossings have been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since Hamas violently seized power in the territory in June, 2007, defeating its rivals from the Fatah movement.

Taher Nunu, a Hamas spokesman in Cairo with the group's truce delegation, said Friday he expects an agreement "within the coming three days." He said progress had been made on a cease-fire, on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and on reconstruction funds for Gaza.

"Many obstacles have been resolved, especially stopping all forms of aggression and the issue of the quality and kind of goods (entering Gaza) and the opening of the border," Nunu said in a statement e-mailed to reporters in Gaza.

Little has leaked from the Israeli side on the truce talks. In Jerusalem, government officials would not comment Friday.

Israeli defense officials said the talks were serious and making progress. An initial agreement could involve a partial opening of Gaza's crossings, they said, with a later agreement to include the release of Schalit in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details remain classified.

Talks on Schalit's release have stalled over disagreements about which prisoners Israel would free. The hundreds of names on Hamas' list include senior militants and masterminds of deadly suicide bombings.

It is unclear how the results of Israel's national election this week are affecting the Cairo talks.

CBS News correspondent Robert Berger reports that, with the final results in, dovish Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima party won 28 seats in Israel's 120-member Knesset.

But hard-line Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu came in a close second with 27 seats. These figures mask the real results; that the right wing of Israeli politics, led by Netanyahu, controls parliament.

Coalition wrangling is expected to last weeks, at least, but Netanyahu will probably be appointed to form the next government, reports Berger, and the right will try to put the breaks on U.S. plans for a Palestinian state.

[floydzeppsux]

Oh, I understand you now. It''s because of the Zionists that good Muslims are killing/mutilating Africans. It''s because of the Babylonian Talmud that good Muslims are killing/mutilating Israelis. It''s because of the Jerusalem Talmud that good Muslims are killing/mutilating Indians. It''s because of the Kabbalah that good Muslims are killing/mutilating tourists in Bali. It''s because of the Jews that good Muslims are killing/mutilating Philippinos.

Everyone in the world hates YOU. I''ll bet it''s because of the Jews that YOU can''t work a decent job, get a decent girl, stay off the booze/drugs, stay out of trouble? iseetruth1, YOU claim to see the truth, when in fact there''s a whole Universe of truth out there, and you can''t even see beyond Uranus.


What criminals you zio-nazis are. Everyone in the world hates you.


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Posted by iseetruth1

[iseetruth1]

You zio-nazis kill all those poor palestinian kids all day long -- no apologies.

At least my tax money did not pay for the old guy in the wheel chair like it paid for the zio-nazi Terror State to kill all those 400 little kids hiding in their homes.

Burned a lot of em alive.

What criminals you zio-nazis are. Everyone in the world hates you.

[floydzeppsux]

Didn''t your friends blow-up that schoolbus? Thrown wheelchair-bound cripples into the sea? Kill yourself.



Israel did not "reveal its actions for the world to see". They blocked international journalists while they bombed defenseless little kids in Gaza. That is because they are zio-nazi criminals. They specialize in theft murder and lies.

They should keep in mind that nobody, and I mean NOBODY likes child murderers, it is not right. Not even when Israel Terror State zio-nazis do it.


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Posted by iseetruth1

[iseetruth1]

Israel did not "reveal its actions for the world to see". They blocked international journalists while they bombed defenseless little kids in Gaza. That is because they are zio-nazi criminals. They specialize in theft murder and lies.

They should keep in mind that nobody, and I mean NOBODY likes child murderers, it is not right. Not even when Israel Terror State zio-nazis do it.

[hamiltongrad]

Until HAMAS has some type of a track record of being peaceful, no "deal" with them should be trusted.

IF the UN is truly interested in bringing freedom to the peoples of the earth, they should organize a
"Liberation" force , to into GAZA and replace the "gov''t" that does not allow freedom of religion, speech, freedom for women or GAAAYS/

[hamiltongrad]

HAMAS USED MEDICAL BOTTLE FOR BOMBS !

See JPOST. HAMAS cynically are using medical supplies instead of for health, but for making bombs out of the contents and containers. CBS W HERE are you ??

[hamiltongrad]

HAmas can''t help themselves, they are always going to do the stupid thing. How come they are still sending rockets over ? What kind of message does that send to the world ??

[trapbreaker]

In other words, for every $1 million worth of goods that gets "seized" and show to photographers, another $50 million gets escorted thru. - posted by Sabz12R

Or redirected back to Egypt for sale.

[sabz12r]

(AP) Egyptian police arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said Thursday.

Hundreds of security forces have been deployed in and around the town of Rafah, located along Egypt''''s sensitive border with Gaza, the official said. Around $1 million in goods was seized.

Posted by Trapbreaker at 07:40 AM : Feb 14, 2009

**********

Yeah, what the story doesn''t tell you though is that unlike the Egyptian government, which is a client-state of the West, the every-day Egyptian police officer sympathizes with the six-decade-old plight and oppression of the Palestinians.

In other words, for every $1 million worth of goods that gets "seized" and show to photographers, another $50 million gets escorted thru.

You Zionists will learn one way or another. I just hope you choose for yourselves the path of truth and lasting justice.

[sabz12r]

Genocide is precisely what needs to be instigated here. Not just the eradication of Palestinians, but the total extinction of Muslims world wide. The world would be a better place for it.

Posted by gosukabug at 11:53 AM : Feb 14, 2009

**********

Yeah, but then you blood-thirsty survivors would be left with the impossible decision of whom to hate and kill next.

How would you decide who to hate and kill? Perhaps whoever has the audacity to disagree with you? Perhaps, just perhaps, you might be on the receiving-end.

The day you stop preaching hate and mischief will be a first step for you.