Palestinians renew Gaza Strip truce

Gaza, Apr 26: Palestinian armed factions renewed their commitment to a Gaza Strip truce today but said rocket salvoes from the territory could resume if Israel did not halt military operations in the occupied West Bank.

The message was delivered to Israel by an Egyptian mediator who has been trying to prevent a major confrontation after Hamas's armed wing fired rockets and declared the Gaza truce dead on Tuesday, Palestinians familiar with the talks said.

The envoy, Major-General Burhan Hammad, ''informed the Israelis of the new commitment by the factions and at same time stressed that factions demanded the calm be reciprocal and simultaneous, covering Gaza and the West Bank,'' a source said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who shares power with Hamas, agreed the truce in November, but rocket fire has continued sporadically.

Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades called Tuesday's barrage a response to the killing of eight Palestinians in Israeli military operations, most of them in the West Bank.

Israel has in the past signalled its interest in extending the Gaza truce to the West Bank, but only if militant threats cease first. Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the apparent ultimatum delivered by Hammad.

Olmert, whose domestic standing was hard-hit by Israel's inconclusive war in Lebanon last year, warned yesterday that he could authorise a major military action in Gaza.

But for the time being he has limited Israel's response to the rockets from Gaza, which rarely cause serious casualties.

''Israel will not hesitate to take harsh measures against those who try to harm its sovereignty by firing rockets ... and other means,'' Olmert's office said after he convened security chiefs to discuss Hamas's barrage, in which no one was hurt.

Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction formed a ruling coalition with Hamas last month, called Tuesday's rockets ''an exceptional event that will not last'' and urged restraint by Israel.

Palestinians want statehood in both Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel captured from Egypt and Jordan in a 1967 war.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but said it plans to keep major Jewish settlements in the West Bank under any future peace deal, a vision rejected by Palestinians.

Reuters

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