JERUSALEM: Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has named two senior officials to replace Amos Gilad, who was suspended as Israel s pointman for Gaza truce talks, public radio said on Tuesday.
Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Beth internal intelligence agency, and Shalom Turjeman, a senior Olmert aide, will now handle talks with Egypt on efforts to forge a Gaza truce and to stop arms smuggling, it said.
The outgoing premier has faced criticism that firing Gilad will hamper efforts to conclude a long-lasting truce with Hamas following the December-January Gaza war.
Gilad is an experienced senior defense ministry official who clinched a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas in June, and has been shuttling between Israel and Egypt for weeks to try to forge a lasting truce to replace the shaky Jan. 18 ceasefires that ended the 22-day offensive.
On Sunday Olmert removed Gilad from his duties after he was quoted scathingly criticizing the premier for changing his position in the truce talks, by seeking the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in any ceasefire. Gilad said adding this condition to the negotiations at such late stage in an insult to Egyptians. -AFP
