Palestinian group leaders said yesterday they were ready to offer a formal cease-fire in their campaign against Israel, tied to a timetable for Israel releasing prisoners and pulling out of Palestinian towns. In effect, the militant factions would extend and formalize the existing de facto cease-fire but make clear to Israel that it must respond if the truce is to last, officials said. "We approve a conditional truce. We will wait to see what the Israelis will offer and the guarantees that we will get. We have not agreed on a specified timeframe for the truce but once we get all these we will study them and declare our decision," added West Bank Hamas leader Hassan Youssef."We can come out with a cease-fire agreement but we will not enter a truce with no guarantees when there are 8,000 prisoners behind Israeli bars," added another senior Hamas official, in Cairo for talks with the Palestinian Authority. The exact wording of the Palestinian offer will be at the center of debate when 13 Palestinian factions meet the Palestinian Authority in Cairo starting this evening. But any declaration by all the factions would be an advance on the current arrangements — a promise by the Palestinian Authority that Palestinians will not attack Israelis, coupled with an informal agreement that the militants will not attack as long as the Israelis leave them alone.
Anwar Abu Taha, a senior official of the second largest group Islamic Jihad, told Reuters that the truce must go hand-in-hand with the timetable for Israeli actions. "We are not talking about a free or unconditional truce. There has to be a timetable agreed by all Palestinian factions ... Israel must halt all military assaults and start releasing all Palestinian prisoners as well as pulling out from Palestinian areas," he said. Sources at the Foreign Ministry said Egypt had already proposed a one-year truce. However, they did not elaborate on the conditions of the cease-fire.