GAZA:Hamas plans to give Egyptian mediators its final response tomorrow to a proposed truce with Israel, a Hamas official said yesterday.
Egypt's state newspaper, al-Ahram, reported a preliminary agreement had been reached on "achieving a period of calm with the Israelis".
A Palestinian official familiar with the Islamist group's talks with Egypt said he expected Hamas to agree to a reciprocal truce with Israel "in the Gaza Strip, at this stage".
Hamas, which controls the coastal territory, had said it also wanted a ceasefire to cover the occupied West Bank, where the rival Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas holds sway.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said the group would present its final response to Egypt tomorrow.
He declined to comment on its content but said any ceasefire should be based on "ending the aggression against the Palestinian people" and securing the opening of Gaza border crossings.
Israel, which tightened restrictions on the Gaza Strip after Hamas violently took over the territory from Fatah in June, has said it was not negotiating a truce with the group but had no reason to launch attacks if cross-border rocket fire stopped.
Egypt has said it has made good progress in efforts to broker a tacit ceasefire.
- (Reuters)