Representatives of Palestinian factions, who are meeting in Cairo this week, have agreed to the Hamas-offered ceasefire declaration, submitted to Egyptian mediators last Thursday.
The factions’ agreement to the initiative should be based on calm in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while Israel would lift the current blockade of Gaza and halt all military actions against the Gaza Strip’s population, representatives of 12 factions conditioned.
According to the Al-Ahram Daily newspaper, the factions wanted also a comprehensive national dialogue under the auspices of Cairo.
In a televised interview with the aL-Jazeera TV Arabic channel, Maher aL-Taher of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, confirmed that his party’s delegation asserted to the chief of Egyptian intelligence Omar Suleiman, that his party wont obstruct the national interests of the Palestinian people.
From his part, Ziyad aL-Nakhala, undersecretary general of the Islamic Jihad group in Palestine, voiced his group’s agreement to a comprehensive ceasefire in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Last Thursday, the ruling Hamas party in Gaza submitted to Cairo a proposal for ceasefire with Israel, based on a six-month period of calm, to be implemented in the Gaza Strip first and then at a later stage in the West Bank.
Israel rejected the Hamas offer, branding it ‘unserious and an attempt by Hamas to rearm and reorganize’.
