Hamas will protect truce: Gaza minister

AFP
January 13, 2011

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/1992/hamas-will-protect-truce-gaza-minister

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's Hamas rulers will ensure a truce on rocket fire against Israel is protected, a minister said on Thursday, a day after militant factions agreed to a period of calm.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the Hamas minister said the enclave's rulers would be sure to protect the calm.

"The national understanding among the factions means they won't give Israel any reason to make war on Gaza," he said, as Hamas security forces fanned out along the northern and eastern sectors of the border to enforce the truce.

"The government will protect this understanding because we don't want another tragedy to befall the Palestinian people," he said.

"Now Gaza is quieter than it has been since 2007 and Israel knows this."

The deployment of security personnel along the border began late on Wednesday after a meeting between Hamas and the main armed factions, at which the groups agreed to avoid escalating tensions with Israel.

At the meeting, Hamas passed on a message from Egypt and other Arab leaders about the threat of a new Israeli operation in response to a rise in rocket fire from Gaza.

By Thursday morning, witnesses and an AFP correspondent confirmed Hamas had beefed its forces along the border east of Gaza City, as well as to the north and were checking all cars on roads leading to the border.

Security sources confirmed the move to AFP, but Hamas refused to comment.

In past weeks, Gaza militants have fired scores of rockets into the Jewish state, prompting a flurry of retaliatory air strikes and raising fears of another massive operation along the lines of the 2008-9 war.

The 22-day war, which ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.

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