ALMOTAMAR.NET - JERUSALEM — Israel's defense minister said Saturday he will step down after an inquiry commission criticized his handling of the war in Lebanon last summer, but he will probably wait until his Labor Party has held its primaries at the end of the month.
The government probe found that Amir Peretz did not fulfill his duty as defense minister, in part due to his inexperience in military matters.
About 100,000 people from across the political spectrum demonstrated Thursday in Tel Aviv to urge Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Peretz to resign.
Israel launched the 34-day war on July 12 after the Lebanese militia Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol and kidnapped three soldiers. At least 1,000 Lebanese and 119 Israeli soldiers were killed. In Hezbollah rocket barrages on northern Israel, 39 civilians were killed.
The long-awaited Winograd Commission report said Olmert hastily led the country into conflict against Hezbollah guerrillas without a comprehensive plan, exercised poor judgment and bore ultimate responsibility for a war that ended inconclusively.
Hamas leader rejects U.S. proposal
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has rejected an American proposal for a detailed timeline to ease Palestinian movement and improve Israeli security, instead threatening new violence against Israel despite wary Palestinian government support for the U.S. plan.
In the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday fired three rockets toward Israel, damaging a house in the town of Sderot to avenge the killing of three members of the group by Israeli undercover troops a day earlier.
The latest fighting and Hamas threats pressured a weak truce reached by Israel and militant groups along the Gaza-Israel border in November.
The U.S. document was recently given to Israel and the Palestinians.
It calls on Israel to remove many West Bank roadblocks, improving operations at Gaza's crossings and arrange for truck convoys between the West Bank and Gaza, two areas separated by Israel.
The Palestinians are asked to halt rocket fire from Gaza at Israel and prevent weapons smuggling into the coastal strip. Israel is urged to allow weapons and equipment to reach security forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Most of the points were already contained in a troubled November 2005 agreement, brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following Israel's pullout from Gaza. Setting a timeline, even one that is nonbinding unless both sides accept it, is the new element of the document.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the document was presented to the Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee, a top decision-making body, for review Saturday. Today, Abbas was to brief Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that governs in a shaky coalition with Abbas' Fatah Party.
Last month, Hamas militants in Gaza fired rockets toward Israel, a first since the cease-fire.
— The Associated Press