(06-25) 11:24 PDT JERUSALEM (AP) --
Islamic militant groups signed an agreement to halt attacks
on Israelis for three months, a senior official of Yasser
Arafat's Fatah faction said Wednesday -- a possible
breakthrough for the U.S.-backed peace plan.
However, an official of the largest militant group, Hamas,
said the deal was not final.
Shortly after word of the cease-fire, Israel sent
helicopters to carry out an airstrike against what it said was
a squad of Hamas militants preparing to carry out a rocket
attack. Palestinian officials said a man and a woman were
killed and 17 Palestinians were wounded.
President Bush reacted skeptically to the reports of a
cease-fire.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Bush said at a Washington
news conference with European leaders. "The true test for
Hamas and terrorist organizations is the complete
dismantlement of their terrorist networks, their capacity to
blow up the peace process."
Israel said an internal Palestinian deal was of no
consequence, and that the Palestinians would be judged on
their actions, including whether they can halt bombings and
shootings.
"It can be a positive step only if it will lead to a
complete and total cessation of all terrorist activities
without a time limit," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman
told The Associated Press. "Only when that happens and the
terrorist infrastructure is completely dismantled will the way
be paved for a true and hopefully successfully peace process."
Fatah, whose own military wing has also carried out
attacks, joined Hamas and the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad in
signing the agreement. Smaller armed groups have not yet
signed on.
Kadoura Fares, speaking on behalf of Fatah, said that in
recent weeks there have been intensive contacts among Fatah
leader Marwan Barghouti, who is jailed in Israel, and Khaled
Mashal of Hamas and Ramadan Shalah of Islamic Jihad, who are
in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The military wings of all three groups have carried out
bombing and shooting attacks against Israelis during 33 months
of fighting, killing hundreds.
"The Palestinian dialogue has resulted in a cease-fire
agreement for a period of three months," Fares said, adding
that a formal statement about a cease-fire would be made later
Wednesday.
"We in the Fatah movement demand that the Israeli
government respond to this initiative with a comprehensive
halting of aggression against the Palestinian people," Fares
said. "We consider this as a step to ending occupation and we
salute the spirit of responsibility in the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad."
A Palestinian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said a document outlining the truce terms was signed by
Mashal, Shalah, and Barghouti.
In it, the militant groups agree to a moratorium on attacks
for three months, the source said; in exchange they demand
Israel end targeted killings of militants and military
incursions, and call for the release of Palestinian prisoners
held by Israel -- but do not set any deadline or timeframe for
this.
The cease-fire applies to settlers and soldiers in the West
Bank and Gaza as well as to Israel, a key Israeli demand, the
source said.
In Gaza, local Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi said the
deal was not final. "In the coming days we will have an
answer, and ... Israeli terrorist actions will be taken into
account when we decide," he said, apparently referring to the
Israeli airstrike Wednesday in the southern Gaza town of Khan
Younis.
Another Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, said that "this is all
lies," when asked about the report of a truce deal.
But Mohammed al-Hindi, the top Islamic Jihad leader in the
Gaza Strip, confirmed Hamas agreed to a three-month truce and
was trying to arrange a joint declaration with his group.
Mediators were currently in the process of informing
Palestinian and Egyptian officials of the agreement. Egypt has
played a major role in helping Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas persuade the militants to end attacks and give a
chance to the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
The Palestinian source said that an official announcement
on a cease-fire would probably be made in the coming days,
possibly from Cairo.
Israeli military intelligence officials have said they
expect such an agreement, and Palestinian officials and
militant leaders have suggested it is imminent.
An end to the violence would presumably clear the way for
implementation of the road map, launched June 4 by President
Bush at a Mideast summit.
In the plan's first phase, the Palestinian Authority is
supposed to dismantle terror groups, while Israel is supposed
to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and
Gaza, dismantle scores of illegal outposts and gradually
withdraw troops from autonomous Palestinian territories.
To date, both sides have approached implementation
haltingly: Israel has taken down just a handful of outposts,
while the Palestinians insist on using only persuasion to get
the militants to stop attacks on Israelis. Violence has
plagued the efforts to arrange a cease-fire.
Israel fears a cease-fire will be used by the militants to
regroup for more attacks, especially as it is being called a
"hudna" in Arabic -- an Islamic term widely understood as
referring to a temporary arrangement. It says a truce must be
only the first step in a Palestinian crackdown on the
militants.
Barghouti, a senior figure in Arafat's Fatah faction,
played a major role in drafting the document from his jail
cell with knowledge of the Israeli authorities, who allowed
go-betweens to enter and leave as well as pass him documents.
In so doing, he helped Abbas, who had been trying for weeks to
persuade the militants to lay down their arms.
Abbas has promised the militants will eventually be
disarmed, but he also says he will not use force against them,
fearing a Palestinian civil war.
Hamas leaders in Gaza have chafed at laying down their
arms. Still, the group is coming under enormous pressure from
all sides, including the Arab world, the United States and
Europe. There are efforts to dry up its funding, and Israel
has made clear it will target its leaders in military strikes
if attacks go on.
Since violence erupted in September 2000, dozens of
Palestinian suicide bombers have crossed the largely unmarked
line between Israel and the West Bank, blowing themselves up
in nearby Israeli cities and killing hundreds.
In all, the fighting has killed more than 2,400 people on
the Palestinian side and more than 800 people on the Israeli
side.
Violence continued Wednesday.
Hamas said two of its members fired an anti-tank missile at
an Israeli military vehicle in northern Gaza. That set off a
firefight in which the two militants were killed. An Israeli
soldier was wounded, the military said.
The clash occurred in the area of Beit Hanoun, which
Israeli forces have controlled for several weeks in an effort
to prevent Palestinians from firing homemade rockets at the
Israeli town of Sderot, just beyond the fence surrounding the
seaside strip.
Also Wednesday, Israeli police said they captured two
Palestinians en route to setting off explosives in an Israeli
city.
