Hamas officials: Truce talks have failed

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Hamas said on Wednesday that Israel's conditions for achieving a truce were making it extremely difficult to achieve an agreement.

Hamas officials who arrived in Cairo earlier this week to discuss the possibility of achieving a truce with Israel said they were now "less optimistic" about the prospects of striking a deal.

Some even went as far as declaring that the truce talks had failed.

According to a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptians may announce the failure of the truce talks in the wake of Hamas's refusal to accept the Israeli conditions.

"Israel wants a free truce," he said. "They don't want to offer anything in return. They want an end to the rocket attacks in return for an end to their aggression."

The official said that Hamas was demanding the immediate reopening of all the border crossings in the Gaza Strip, in addition to a halt of Israeli military operations.

He noted that Israel had made it clear to the Egyptians that the borders would be reopened only after a truce goes into effect and is not violated by any of the Palestinian factions.

Moreover, Israel was conditioning the reopening of the border crossings to the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit, the official added, pointing out that Hamas had rejected the conditions.

Another Hamas official accused Israel of placing "obstacles" on the road to achieving a truce. "Israel's conditions are completely unacceptable," he said. "These conditions are clearly aimed at foiling Egypt's efforts."

The Hamas delegation to the Cairo talks is scheduled to return to Syria and the Gaza Strip Thursday. The delegation, which held talks with Egyptian General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, is headed by Musa Abu Marzouk and Mahmoud Zahar.

The Hamas leaders were expected to hold a conference late Tuesday night to declare the failure of the truce talks, but were forced to call it off under pressure from the Egyptian government, sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post.

The Hamas leaders were apparently enraged to hear that Israel was willing to permit the Palestinians to reopen the Rafah border crossing only under the terms of the 2005 US-brokered agreement that placed the terminal under the control of forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The agreement also allowed EU monitors to
have a permanent presence there.
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A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.