Top Hamas strongman emerges from post-war hiding

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gaza's top strongman emerged Saturday from six weeks in hiding, leading a Hamas delegation to Egypt for cease-fire talks and reiterating the Islamic militant group is "flexible" over who should lead reconstruction in the devastated territory.

Mahmoud Zahar, who is one of Gaza's top two leaders, and three other Hamas officials crossed from Gaza into Egypt on Saturday, en route to Cairo.

Egypt is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a durable truce. Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to lift their 20-month border blockade of Gaza, while Israel wants improved guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling weapons into Gaza.

On the Egyptian side, Zahar told reporters Hamas would be flexible about who will take charge of reconstruction. Thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed or damaged during the war, causing an estimated $2 billion in damages.

Hamas initially insisted it should supervise the spending. However, international donors are reluctant to hand huge sums to the Islamic militants. "We are flexible on who should be in charge of rebuilding," said Zahar who, apparently fearing assassination, had been in hiding during the three-week offensive and even after a tentative cease-fire took hold in mid-January.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh still has not appeared in public.

In the West Bank, Hamas' rival, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said Saturday he will transfer $50 million in emergency aid to Gazans whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the offensive.

The U.N. is putting together a detailed report on the war damage. The report is to be presented to donor countries in Egypt on March 2. The conference is expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for rebuilding Gaza. Fayyad said the emergency payments will be taken from the current Palestinian budget.

Israel unilaterally halted its three-week military offensive on Jan. 18, and Hamas militants also halted fire a day later, but the two sides have not agreed on the terms of a cease-fire. Sporadic violence has continued since.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck four smuggling tunnels and a weapons depot in the area of the Gaza-Egypt border, the Israeli military said. The airstrikes came in response to two rockets fired from Gaza on southern Israel.

One of Israel's top goals in the Egypt-mediated contacts with Hamas is to win the return of Gilad Schalit, a tank crewman held by Hamas in Gaza since he was captured in a cross-border raid in June, 2006. Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return. In a television interview Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak answered "yes" when asked if Schalit's release had grown closer. "A supreme effort is being made to speed up the process," he told Channel 10 TV.

In other developments, U.N. and Hamas officials met in Gaza late Friday, after Hamas police seized 10 trucks with U.N. aid shipments, including rice and flour. In response, the U.N. suspended aid shipments.

Earlier in the week, Hamas police had seized thousands of blankets and food parcels earmarked for U.N. distribution to needy residents.

Ahmed Kurd, Hamas' minister of social affairs, said Saturday that the two sides resolved their differences. He claimed that the U.N. trucks were not marked and Hamas officials believed the goods were sent by Egyptian charities, meant to be given straight to Hamas.

U.N. officials said Saturday they would not lift their freeze on aid shipments until all 10 trucks were returned.

"When they return what they have taken, we will inform everybody. But what we are hearing is positive as of now," said John Ging, the top U.N. aid official in Gaza.

Some 80 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people rely on the U.N. agency for food or other support. Their needs have increased after Israel's bruising three-week military operation in the territory that killed hundreds of civilians and left thousands homeless.

In Turkey, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for urgent humanitarian aid for Palestinians, saying Saturday that aid shipments so far met only one-fifth of the actual need.

Abbas, who leads Fatah and runs a rival Palestinian administration in the West Bank, acknowledged the need to iron out differences between Palestinian political factions and go to elections to set up a consensus government that will hopefully be on peaceful terms with Israel.

In 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in fighting that drove out Fatah supporters. Israel's 22-day war on Hamas in Gaza heightened tensions between the Islamic militant group and Fatah, even as Egypt and other Arab countries try to push them into reconciliation.

"We don't want a government that will allow Israel to continue its siege," Abbas said in the Ankara during his European tour to seek support for a unity government.

"We're not asking Hamas to recognize Israel," said Abbas. "We expect this from the new government."