The Israeli Haaretz newspaper unveiled yesterday a new Egyptian plan for achieving a truce between the Israelis and the Palestinians, reconciling the Palestinian factions and opening all crossings into the Gaza Strip on the other. The Israeli newspaper said intensive contacts are currently underway between Cairo and Tel Aviv to review the terms of the Egyptian initiative, which is backed by the US and Europe.
The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is leading the contacts with Egypt on the new truce agreement, in full coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Haaretz, the new Egyptian plan relies on forming a Palestinian national unity government between Fatah and Hamas, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip and opening all the crossing borders. The source pointed out that the issue of a truce in Gaza emerged for the first time during the latest talks between Amos Gilad, the head of the Political Security Bureau at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and Uzi Arad, National Security Adviser, with the head of the Egyptian Intelligence, Major General Omar Suleiman, during Barak's visit to Cairo. Haaretz pointed out that the Egyptian plan provides for reconciling the Palestinian factions and forming a national unity government between Fatah and Hamas. This government would work on reconstructing the Gaza Strip until the Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections in early 2010. The plan includes a proposal to open all crossings into the Gaza Strip, including the one in Rafah, and to set up a joint Palestinian security force made up of members of Fatah and Hamas, monitored by the Arabs and controlling the Gaza Strip. Egyptian and Palestinian sources said that this force would consist of 180 soldiers from Egypt and other Arab countries, and that their task would be to oversee the Palestinian force. The Egyptian plan also addresses the issue of the soldier Gilad Shalit without going into many details.
