Frontline Briefs

By JTA

article created on: 2009-02-01T00:00:00

Hamas: Victory is close

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip said victory is close. “We trust Allah and know that he is by our side despite what people are trying to tell you to affect your spirits; I say that victory is close,” Ismail Haniyeh, the Gazan prime minister, said Jan. 12 in a taped message released from his hiding place. Haniyeh said he would cooperate with initiatives that would end Israel’s actions in Gaza, where fighting has raged since last month when Hamas ended a fragile cease-fire, but vowed to continue fighting “occupying forces.” Israel has conditioned a cease-fire on Hamas ending its rocket fire and smuggling weapons into Gaza.

Hamas dismisses Shalit issue

JERUSALEM (JTA)—A Hamas official told an Arabic newspaper that the terrorist group does not care about the condition of Gilad Shalit. Recent reports claimed that the Israeli soldier kidnapped in June 2006 to the Gaza Strip was wounded in the early days of Israel’s operation in Gaza. “Shalit may have been wounded, and he may not have been. The subject no longer interests us,” Moussa Abu Marzuk, deputy of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat. “We are not interested in his well-being at all, and we are not giving him any special guard since he is as good as a cat or less,” he added.

Newlywed soldier wounded

JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli soldier who was called up to fight in Gaza the day after his wedding was critically wounded in an explosion. Two other soldiers were moderately wounded in a booby-trapped house in northern Gaza the night of Jan. 12, the Israel Defense Forces announced. Troops uncovered weapons and bullet-proof vests at the house.

U.S. evacuating 150 Americans from Gaza

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The State Department is preparing to evacuate 150 Americans and their non-American family members from the Gaza Strip. “The department, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem are taking the necessary steps to help them depart as soon as arrangements can be made for their safe travel,” State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Jan. 12, according to news reports. Earlier this month the United States evacuated 16 Americans and 11 non-American family members from Gaza to Amman, Jordan.