Hoefully we are taking those "baby steps" on the road to peace but......
Hamas and Islamic Jihad agree on draft cease-fire
By Arnon Regular, Aluf Benn and Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have agreed on a draft
cease-fire for three months, in which they will
cease attacks both in Israel and the territories.
But the groups have not yet given the Palestinian
Authority their formal approval, apparently because the PA wants to defer the official announcement until the arrival of U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice this weekend.
The PA has wanted to achieve the cease-fire -
also known as an Islamic hudna - before closing
a deal with Israel in which the Palestinians
will accept security responsibility for Gaza
and Bethlehem, and possibly another West Bank
town.
A leak about the cease-fire's acceptance forced
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, considered the most
hardline of the Hamas leaders, to deny that an
agreement had been struck, but all the other
spokesmen for Hamas in Gaza confirmed that
there was an agreement, limited to three months.
An Islamic Jihad official also denied the
reports, calling them "all lies."
Barghouti signed the agreement of behalf of
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's
Fatah movement, the source said.
In the document, the militant groups agree to a
moratorium on attacks for three months. In
exchange, they demand Israel end targeted
killings of militants and military incursions
into Palestinian areas, the source said. They
also call for a release of Palestinian
prisoners held by Israel - but do not set any
deadline or timeframe for this, the source
said.
"The Palestinian dialogue has resulted in a
cease-fire agreement for a period of three
months," senior Fatah official Kadoura Fares
said Wednesday. "We in the Fatah movement
demand that the Israeli government respond to
this initiative with a comprehensive halting of
aggression against the Palestinian people,"
Fares said. "We consider this as a step to
ending occupation and we salute the spirit of
responsibility in the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad."
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