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Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel will go back to carrying out military strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip despite a month-old truce, army radio reported on Tuesday.
"Those who miss the operations in the Gaza Strip, don't worry, they will come," Barak told a Labour party event in occupied Jerusalem, without elaborating.
A spokesman for Hamas, which violently seized power in Gaza in June 2007, called the remarks "ridiculous" and said the Islamist movement was "prepared for all options."
Barak's remarks "reflect the state of confusion of the Israeli occupation in dealing with Hamas and the Gaza Strip, and the vacillation between an aggressive escalation and the truce," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters.
In June, Israel agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce with Palestinian fighters in Gaza that has virtually halted the near daily rocket and mortar attacks launched from the impoverished territory on southern Israel.
But Israeli officials remain wary of the deal and suspect Gaza's Hamas rulers and other armed groups are using the calm to train and rearm with weapons smuggled through a vast network of tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Israel had also said the truce depended on progress in releasing Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal seized by Gaza fighters in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in occupied Jerusalem today, a week after Olmert threw US-sponsored peace talks into limbo by announcing that he would step down.
Aides said Olmert favoured freeing some Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, but they gave no timeline.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas would "raise a number of issues, such as the permanent-status issues, checkpoints and prisoners."
Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved the release of five Palestinian prisoners as part of a swap deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement that brought the bodies of two Israeli soldiers home.
Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners last December to bolster Abbas. A smaller group was released in October.
Prisoner deal
Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Ashraf Al Ajrami told Reuters that Abbas would insist that any deal include long-serving prisoners, women and children as well as political leaders, a reference to uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, seen as a possible successor to Abbas.
Erekat said Olmert and Abbas would be joined by their chief negotiators, including former Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qorie and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a top contender to become Kadima's new chief.
Israeli officials say the United States has been pushing the two sides to agree a written document as early as September.
Cash shortage: Salaries under threat
Banks in the Gaza Strip face a currency shortage that could prevent Palestinian National Authority workers from receiving their salaries in the coastal enclave, Palestinian and Western officials said yesterday.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad plans to pay salaries to public workers on Thursday, but the officials said Israel has yet to allow the banks to bring 100 million Israeli shekels (about Dh103.7 million) into the Gaza Strip for payday.
Palestinian National Authority workers in the Gaza Strip get their salaries by withdrawing cash from bank teller machines. Without a cash infusion, officials say, banks in the territory may not have enough shekels to cover workers' withdrawals.
Israel allowed a small shipment of shekels into the Gaza Strip last week to replace bills that were worn out, the officials said.
Large shipments take place several times a year.
Palestinian and Western officials said the United States and the European Union have intervened with Israel, seeking approval to allow the shekels into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials say Israel has yet to say whether it will allow the cash into the Gaza Strip in time.
- Reuters
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