Palestinian group may consider "calm" with Israel

GAZA, Nov 18 (Reuters) A Palestinian militant group may consider ceasing attacks against the Jewish state if Israel first halts its strikes in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, an official said.

Khader Habib, an official of the Islamic Jihad armed group, said after meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas that his group would consider the Palestinian leader's call to end attacks, including firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.

''The president asked us officially for calm (a ceasefire). We said that we would consider this but it must be reciprocal, Israel must first end its attacks in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,'' Habib told Reuters after meeting Abbas yesterday.

Islamic Jihad is not a member of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's government and has previously carried out ''revenge attacks'' including suicide bombings against Israelis in what it termed as retaliation for Israel's military actions against Palestinians.

The group also fires makeshift rockets from the Gaza Strip into nearby towns and villages in Israel.

Other Palestinian factions largely abided by a ceasefire which was in effect between March and December 2005.

In offering to cease the attacks if Israel stops first, Islamic Jihad appeared to be showing a softening of its stance, particularly after vows of revenge for the deaths of 19 Palestinians in the town of Beit Hanoun who were killed by an Israeli artillery barrage earlier this month.

Habib said that Palestinian factions, including the governing Hamas group and its rival Fatah movement, would meet with Haniyeh and possibly also with Abbas to continue discussing a possible ceasefire next week.

A similar attempt by Abbas last August to achieve a halt of action by armed groups against Israel failed because they said they would only do so if Israel stopped first.

REUTERS PDS PM0532