Meshaal in Prisoner Swap Talks

An Israeli soldier detains a Palestinian youth in the center of the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday. (EPA)

Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

GAZA CITY, 25 November 2006 — Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal held talks with Egyptian officials on the problems facing the formation of a Palestinian national unity government and securing a prisoner swap deal with Israel, Egypt’s MENA news agency reported yesterday.

The Damascus-based Meshaal, who has long been in Israel’s sights, met Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman for more than two hours on Thursday evening, it said.

The governing Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party have so far failed to agree on a national unity Cabinet, a move seen as crucial to lifting a crippling Western blockade on the Palestinians. MENA said a deal was being blocked over the division of portfolios between Hamas and Fatah.

“Hamas is insisting on keeping the Interior Ministry portfolio while Fatah wants to take it back,” a Palestinian source close to the talks told AFP.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians turned out to bury a 64-year-old grandmother who blew herself up near Israeli troops, while clashes between fighters and Israeli troops on an offensive in northern Gaza claimed the lives of a Palestinian schoolboy and a fighter filming the fighting.

Israel launched its military campaign five months ago, hoping to curb rocket fire on Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip. But the rocket fire has only intensified, and yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the ruling Hamas group said fighter factions were prepared to stop launching rockets if Israel would end all military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel said it was “ludicrous” to expect it to suspend all military operations in Palestinian territories in exchange for a partial cease-fire in Gaza alone.

However, a government spokeswoman said Israel would respond positively to a complete cease-fire in Gaza.

In the past, proposals such as Haniyeh’s have failed to curb fighting, and a Hamas spokesman quickly watered down the prime minister’s comments.

The woman who was buried, Fatma Omar An-Najar, blew herself up Thursday as Israeli forces moved through the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City. Mourners shouting “God is Great” draped her simple wooden coffin with a green Hamas flag yesterday before driving it off to a nearby cemetery.

One of her 38 grandchildren, 13-year-old Leila, sobbed inconsolably at the funeral.

“I knew she wanted martyrdom. She was brave. But I’m still surprised that she did it,” she said. Fatma An-Najar was by far the oldest of more than 100 Palestinian bombers who have attacked Israelis over the past six years, killing hundreds.

Female bombers were a rarity during the first several years of the current conflict, but have become more common over the years. The last bombing, on Nov. 6 in Gaza, was also carried out by a woman.

An-Najar’s death, the Nov. 6 bombing and a women’s demonstration staged earlier this month to distract troops so Hamas fighters could escape a besieged mosque, all reflect increased involvement by Gaza women in the Palestinian struggle.

Not far from the funeral, also in Jabaliya, the clashes between troops and fighters claimed the life of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, hospital officials said. The army said troops had no knowledge of hitting a boy in that area.

Earlier yesterday, troops killed a Hamas fighter as he filmed the group’s battlefield operations.
Hamas often films its operations, then broadcasts the footage on its television station and releases it to other media outlets.

The source also said there were obstacles hampering efforts to reach a deal for Israel to free Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of captured soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

“Israel wants to reduce as much as possible the number of Palestinians to be exchanged for Shalit, while we want to secure the release of as many as possible,” the source said, without giving any figures.

The armed wing of Hamas and two other fighter groups in the Gaza Strip claimed the seizure of Shalit in June in an attack that triggered a massive and ongoing Israeli offensive on the impoverished territory.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meanwhile repeated his support for Palestinian unity, warning also against the costs of infighting. “Egypt is deploying all its efforts to help the Palestinian brothers toward reconciliation, to get out of the current situation and (set up) a government of national unity,” MENA yesterday quoted Mubarak as saying.

He warned of the “danger of conflicts between Palestinian factions” saying reconciliation was needed “to lift the blockade imposed on the Palestinian people by the Israeli party and to free Palestinian prisoners” in Israel.

“Dialogue between the different factions is the only way to get out of the impasse,” he said, with the Palestinian government reeling from a crippling international aid blockade since Hamas took power in March.

Israel and the West refuse to deal with the Hamas-led government until it recognizes the Jewish state, abandons its armed struggle and agrees to abide by previous Palestinian peace deals.