[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It remains unclear how many hours the Gazans can
expect the crossings to be closed if they fire a rocket that kills an
Israeli.]

Gaza crossings may reopen on Friday
Jun. 26, 2008
YAAKOV LAPPIN, HERB KEINON and YAAKOV KATZ , THE JERUSALEM POST
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Defense officials said Wednesday night they planned to open the crossings
between Gaza and Israel on Friday if there were no more violations of the
cease-fire.
At a late-night security assessment in the Defense Ministry on Wednesday, it
was decided decided that Israel will keep the Gaza border crossings closed
on Thursday, except for special humanitarian cases, in response to Tuesday's
Kassam rocket attacks.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner exchange aimed
at securing the release of St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit from Gaza will resume on
Thursday, an aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

"Ofer Dekel [the government's point man on the issue] will head out to Egypt
on Thursday, and he will continue the process," the aide said.

The Egyptians are expected to shuttle between Dekel and Hamas
representatives from Gaza, who may be staying at the same hotel.

The aide did not indicate how close the two sides were to a deal.

Earlier in the day, the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the terrorist
groups that participated in the abduction of Schalit on June 25, 2006,
warned that Israel's reluctance to release the large number of Palestinian
security prisoners demanded by Hamas would result in Schalit remaining in
captivity for years to come.
"If the Palestinian prisoners are not released, Schalit won't be free in two
years either," the group said in a statement, referring to the two-year
anniversary of the abduction.

Asked to comment on a report in Kuwait's Al-Qabas newspaper, according to
which Israel had agreed to refrain from responding to the three Kassam
rockets fired by Islamic Jihad at Israel on Tuesday, Barak's aide said the
decision to end talks on reopening the Rafah border crossing between Sinai
and Gaza was a response to the cease-fire violations.

Israel would carefully watch the situation in the Gaza Strip and determine
whether the cease-fire was being maintained before going ahead with plans to
ease the sanctions on goods and material allowed into the area, and before
beginning discussions with the Egyptians about opening the Rafah crossing, a
senior diplomatic official said.

Under the agreement brokered by the Egyptians last week, Israel was to
gradually increase the number of trucks allowed into the Gaza Strip as the
cease-fire held, intensive negotiations were to begin on the release of
Schalit, and Israel was to begin talks with the Egyptians about normalizing
the situation at the Gaza crossings, including Rafah, with an eye to perhaps
creating a temporary crossing between Egypt and the Strip at Kerem Shalom.

Tuesday's firing of Kassam rockets at the western Negev has scuttled those
plans for now. As to when the meetings on Rafah will take place, and when
there will be an additional increase in what is allowed into the Gaza Strip,
the official said, "It is too early to tell, we have to watch and see in
which direction the security calm is headed."