Gaza truce begins, Israel checks on attack report

GAZA, Nov 26 (Reuters) A truce between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel took effect today, heralding a possible end to a wave of rocket attacks on the Jewish state and a halt to a five-month-old Israeli military offensive.

Israel Radio reported a rocket landed in southern Israel an hour after the truce began but no one was hurt. The Israeli army said it was checking the report and it was unclear whether the rocket was fired by mainstream militants or a small group.

''Yes, (the ceasefire) is in effect,'' said Abu Ubeida, of the armed wing of the governing Islamist Hamas group. ''We will monitor the commitment of the enemy to the agreement and decide on the future as it unfolds.'' Hamas said its armed wing fired three rockets at Israel just before the ceasefire took effect at 6 am (09:30 IST). The rockets damaged a building but caused no injuries, the Israeli army said.

The ceasefire could pave the way for a long-awaited summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on ways to restart West Asia peace talks.

It could also speed up efforts to arrange a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier whose capture by gunmen in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip in late June sparked the Israeli military assault.

ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL The Israeli army said it had withdrawn its forces from Gaza overnight, before the truce took effect. Palestinian witnesses confirmed soldiers had left northern Gaza, where operations against rocket-launching squads had been focused.

''Thanks to God the Israeli forces have quit our land in defeat.

We feel like victors,'' said Abdel-Majid Ash-Shanti, 23, who lives in northern Gaza.

Hamas, whose rise to power in the Palestinian territories after winning January elections triggered a Western aid boycott that has deepened economic hardship, was instrumental in persuading militant groups to agree to hold their fire.

Abbas, a moderate whose long-dominant Fatah faction was beaten in the January elections, hammered out the agreement to halt rocket attacks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

The president, who has long sought a halt to the attacks, informed Olmert of the deal in a phone call late yesterday.

''Abbas asked in response that Israel stop all military operations in the Gaza Strip and withdraw all the forces,'' said Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

''The prime minister ... told Abbas that Israel would respond favourably, as Israel was operating in the Gaza Strip in response to the violence.'' Israel, which completed a pullout of troops and settlers from Gaza in September 2005, threatened last week to step up the military offensive after an upsurge in rocket attacks.

More than 400 Palestinians, about half of them militants, have been killed in the offensive, Palestinian hospital officials and residents say. Three Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed since the assault began.

Eisin said Olmert and Abbas had agreed to talk soon on ways to end violence in the occupied West Bank.

The agreement could help Haniyeh and Abbas finalise talks on forming a unity government of technocrats that Palestinians hope can lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed after Hamas came to power in March.

A halt to rocket attacks on southern Israel could also ease political pressure on Olmert at home, where his popularity has flagged after a July-August war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon that ended inconclusively with a UN-brokered truce.

REUTERS BDP PM1123