Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed the army to halt air strikes and raids into the Gaza Strip in response to a significant drop in rocket fire from the territory, officials in his office said yesterday.
Israeli defense officials and Hamas said there was no formal truce in place. But the officials in Olmert's office said the prime minister had ordered the army to scale back its operations to allow Egypt to proceed in mediation talks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks.
Heavy violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel has hampered US-backed peace talks between Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership of the West Bank. Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have set a December target for reaching a final peace deal.
Olmert told an audience yesterday that the fighting in Gaza, along with a shooting that killed eight young Jewish students at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva last Thursday, was aimed at undermining the peace efforts.
"Their purpose is to divert us from a path of peace," Olmert said. "There's no chance that they will succeed."
Despite the violence, he said, Israel is prepared to take a "significant, important and dramatic step" to advance peace.
"We will not give up on this effort," he said.
Abbas briefly called off the negotiations last week in response to an Israeli military operation in Gaza in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed, including dozens of civilians, according to Palestinian medical officials. The offensive was launched in response to intense Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said yesterday that no comprehensive ceasefire had been reached. But Hamas officials have said in recent days that Hamas will stop the fire if Israel halts its military operations -- mirroring a remark by Olmert last Wednesday that Israel has no reason to attack Gaza if the rocket launchings cease.
Hamas officials said their leaders would talk to Egypt in the next day or two to continue the efforts to work out a deal. However, an informal truce already appeared to be in effect.
The Israeli army said it has not carried out airstrikes or land operations in Gaza since last Wednesday. Rocket fire fell significantly over the weekend. The army said two rockets were fired on Sunday, down from a daily average of more than a dozen the previous week.
Meanwhile, the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva said yesterday that it would not welcome Olmert because of his political views. The ultra-nationalist religious school in west Jerusalem is considered the center of Israeli religious nationalism and a strong proponent of the settler movement.
The statement came a day after Education Minister Yuli Tamir -- a former member of Israel's main anti-settlement Peace Now movement -- was greeted with insults when she paid a visit to the seminary to express her condolences over last Thursday's attack.
Students yelled "criminal," "murderer" and "traitor" at her during the visit, while one tried to strike her before being pushed back by her bodyguards.
"I have never been confronted with such hate," Tamir told radio yesterday.
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