Two Israeli Cabinet ministers yesterday urged the government to examine any serious ceasefire proposal from Hamas, the radical group that does not recognize the Jewish state but which rules the Gaza Strip.
"If a serious offer for a truce from Hamas reached us, I think we should examine it seriously," Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters.
One of Israel's deputy prime ministers and a member of the main coalition party Kadima, Mofaz ruled out direct political negotiations with the Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza in the middle of June unless it recognizes Israel.
"If Hamas comes to us with a serious proposal for a long-term truce, in my opinion Israel should not reject it. For that, it would not be vital for Hamas to recognize Israel first," Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told public radio.
"What is essential is that it stop rocket fire and all other attacks against Israel from Gaza, and that it agrees to stop arms smuggling on the Egypt border," he said.
"Making recognition of Israel a precursor to negotiations would be the best way of torpedoing it from the beginning," the former defense minister said.
Ben Eliezer linked dialogue with Hamas to the release of an Israeli soldier captured in June last year by Palestinian fighters on the Gaza border.
In his opinion, Hamas was "showing signs of weariness" because of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and economic sanctions.
But the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied that Israel was considering a ceasefire proposal from Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group.
"Israel talks to the Palestinian Authority [headed by President Mahmoud Abbas] and not with extremists," a government official said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian medics said, one day after seven militants were killed in an incursion.
The 17-year-old was shot in the chest near the fence separating Israel from Gaza, east of the central town of Khan Yunis. He was taken to Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital where he died of his wounds, medics said.
It was not clear why the man was shot or what he was doing in the area.
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