Gaza truce to last six months

2008-06-17 21:15

Gaza City - A Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas will last six months, the Palestinian Islamist group said at a news conference in the impoverished territory on Tuesday.

"The duration of the truce, which will come into effect on Thursday at 03:00 GMT, will be six months according to the agreement reached under Egyptian mediation," senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said.

"Hamas accepted the truce offer proposed by Egypt which stipulates a reciprocal halt to all military operations from 06:00 on Thursday," Hayya said.

"The entry into force of the period of calm will be followed several hours later by the partial opening of border crossings used for the importation of goods. The blockade which Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip will be lifted a few days later."

The Hamas official said that the truce deal envisaged further talks between the Islamist group, the Palestinian leadership and the European Union to pave the way for the re-opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the territory's only one that bypasses Israel.

"One week after the start of implementation of the period of calm, there will be a meeting of representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the European Union to discuss with Egypt the modalities of the re-opening the crossing," he said.

Secular Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in June last year, insists that he alone has the right to control the external borders of the Palestinian territories.

Up until the Hamas takeover of Gaza, the Rafah crossing operated under an agreement between the Palestinian leadership, Israel and the European Union.

Hayya said that Egypt would also continue its efforts to secure Israeli agreement to the extension of the truce deal to the occupied West Bank.

Israel has been reluctant to agree to the deal because it insists its military operations there are essential to preventing attacks inside the Jewish state.

- AFP