Hamas announces ceasefire after Israel declares truce

Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:43am EST
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas said Sunday it would cease fire immediately along with other militant groups in the Gaza Strip and give Israel, which already declared a unilateral truce, a week to pull its troops out of the territory.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in response: "We'll play this day by day. We'll see how this goes. We want to leave Gaza. We'll do so as soon as we can."

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on the conflict, said the group and other factions were announcing a Gaza ceasefire "starting immediately" and Israel, which launched its offensive on December 27, had a week to withdraw.

Hamas, he said, was demanding the opening of all Gaza border crossings for the entry of "all materials, food, goods and basic needs."

The Islamist group said previously it would not stop its attacks as long as Israeli soldiers remained in the Gaza Strip.

During the 22-day-long offensive, Israeli attacks killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, including some 700 civilians, Gaza medical officials said. Israel said hundreds of gunmen were among the dead. Ten Israeli soldiers were killed as well as three Israeli civilians hit by rockets.

Some 17 rockets hit southern Israel after the ceasefire Olmert declared went into effect at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT). Israel responded with two air strikes against launching sites and medical workers said a Palestinian civilian was killed.

At least three rockets struck southern Israel after Hamas said it was halting attacks, police said.

A statement issued by Hamas in Syria, which also announced the week-long ceasefire, said Palestinian factions were willing to respond to efforts by Egypt and others to broker an agreement for the "final lifting" of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

EGYPT MEETING

Israel tightened the blockade, deepening hardship in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas seized the territory from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Egypt has

largely kept its Rafah crossing with the enclave closed.

"If this ceasefire holds, and I hope it does, you'll see the crossings open to an enormous amount of humanitarian support," Olmert spokesman Mark Regev told Britain's Sky News.

In the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the leaders of Britain, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Spain and Turkey, along with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, met to coordinate policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They gathered to back Egyptian efforts to turn a shaky ceasefire into a solid mutual agreement leading to Israeli withdrawal.

In the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian ambulances picked up more than 95 bodies, most of them gunmen, that had lain in the rubble of buildings and open areas, Hamas police and health officials said.

The civilian death toll and destruction in the Gaza Strip brought strong international pressure on Israel to stop the offensive it launched with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks that had killed 18 people over the previous eight years.

Olmert said Saturday that Israel would not bring its troops home until Hamas ceased fire completely and he threatened to respond strongly to any attacks on the soldiers or cross-border rocket salvoes.

He cited internationally backed understandings with Egypt, Gaza's southern neighbor, on preventing Hamas from rearming through smuggling tunnels as a reason behind Israel's decision to call off its attacks.

After the start of the Israeli-declared ceasefire, Palestinians rushed to remove bodies and survey damage to homes damaged or destroyed in the fighting.

Israel has said it tried to avoid harming non-combatants but that Hamas operated in heavily populated areas.