Jun 17, 2008, 21:10 GMT
Cairo/Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip have reached a truce after months of difficult indirect negotiations and deadly violence, an Egyptian official involved in the talks said Tuesday.
But Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that reports of a ceasefire with Hamas were 'premature.'
Speaking north of Tel Aviv, Barak said Israel was examining the possibility of agreeing to a ceasefire.
'Even if we should reach one it is unclear how long it would last,' he said. The Israeli army must be prepared 'for all developments.'
An Egyptian official, whose name was not given, told Egypt's state news agency MENA that Israel and Hamas had agreed on the first stage of Egyptian proposals to end hostilities. Egypt will continue its efforts in order to implement the rest of the proposals, the official said.
The truce was to take effect Thursday at 6 am (0300 GMT), the official said.
A Hamas spokesman confirmed the report, saying a formal announcement by the radical Islamic group was close. He said Hamas wanted to inform other Palestinian factions active in Gaza Tuesday evening, before making the announcement.
Israel said the deal was not yet final, and that it was still verifying with Egypt whether Hamas had indeed accepted all of its conditions.
The Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement that Amos Gilad, the senior Israeli defence official involved in the Egyptian- mediated truce negotiations, would travel to Egypt Tuesday night for unexpected talks with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman.
A Hamas delegation returned to Gaza from Egypt earlier Tuesday, where it had heard and responded to Israel's latest reply in the negotiations. It was also to return to Egypt again.
'The cabinet last Thursday gave preference to the Egyptian track to try and achieve calm in the south of Israel,' an Israeli government spokeswoman, Gali Cohen, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'If all actions are stopped from Gaza towards Israel - the rockets, the strengthening and rearming of Hamas in Gaza - and if we see, and we would like to see, movement regarding (Israeli Corporal) Gilad Shalit, then it could be serious,' she said.
'Actions are needed and not words,' she added, referring to an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for the past two years.
MENA gave no details about the agreement, but London's Arabic al- Hayat daily reported earlier Tuesday that the negotiations centred on a three-stage deal. The first involved an end to hostilities. The second phase would take effect a week later, and involve an easing of Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods into Gaza. The third stage would include talks on the reopening of Rafah border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza, and on the release of Shalit.
Israel had initially said that the soldier's immediate release was a condition for a truce. Hamas demands the release of hundreds of Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons in return for Shalit's freedom.
Hamas has also demanded the lifting of Israel's tight blockade of the Strip, imposed in response to near-daily rocket attacks from the area at its southern towns and villages.
It specifically wants the Rafah crossing to reopen.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the reported agreement.
A statement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office in Ramallah said Abbas, who has just concluded a one-day visit to Kuwait, 'followed with interest the calm agreement reached between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and which is supposed to take effect Thursday morning.'
It said 'the president believes the calm is in the national interest of our people.'
In Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States could not confirm an agreement had been reached but expressed scepticism that any ceasefire with Hamas could be lasting because the militants refuse to reject violence.
'Saying you've got a loaded gun to my head but you're not going to fire it today is far different than taking the gun down, locking it up and saying you're not going to use it again,' Casey said.
The United States, however, would welcome a deal that would halt Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens living near Gaza and Egyptian efforts in the peace process, Casey said.
'We believe that establishing calm in Gaza and elsewhere is a good thing, and we're supportive of Egyptian efforts and other efforts to achieve that,' Casey said.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that his movement will be committed to the date or any date announced by Egypt.
With a truce not yet effective in Gaza, violence meanwhile continued.
Israel launched three back-to-back airstrikes in the southern and central Gaza Strip Tuesday afternoon, killing at least six Palestinian gunmen, medical officials said.
Five of the dead were militants of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad faction, whose car suffered a direct hit from an Israeli missile as it was driving through a Khan Younis street, witnesses said.
Another Palestinian militant was also killed and at least two others injured in a second and third airstrike on a car and a group of gunmen near and in the nearby town of Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein said.
Palestinian miltants injured an Israeli child in the border city of Sderot in a rocket attack, Israeli media reported.
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