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Deal with militants nearing, Abbas says

As rare calmness covers the Gaza Strip, Israel says it is willing to reciprocate and hold off on military activities.

By Times wire
Published January 24, 2005

JERUSALEM - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he was close to persuading Palestinian militant groups to stop their attacks on Israelis, while Israel pledged for the first time to hold fire if calm prevails.

Abbas extended his stay in Gaza until today. For days, he has been meeting representatives of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a group with ties to his Fatah movement.

Abbas said in an interview on Palestinian TV that he expected to have a truce in hand "very soon."

"We can say that there has been significant progress in the talks. Our differences have diminished, and therefore we are bound to reach an agreement very soon," Abbas said.

Israel, meanwhile, offered cautious praise for a deployment of Palestinian police that has brought several days of rare calm to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who a week earlier warned that the army would take "any action" to halt Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks, said he hoped the lull would last. But he repeated threats to act with force if guerrillas resumed attacking Israelis.

Sharon spoke in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of homemade Kassam rockets fired across the border by militants in the Gaza Strip. It has been five days since a rocket landed in Sderot - a period coinciding with Abbas' talks in Gaza. Amid the talks, Abbas also dispatched hundreds of Palestinian police into northern Gaza border areas to prevent fighters from firing at Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that the militant groups promised Palestinian authorities they would hold their fire for about a month in exchange for a promise of a future role in governing the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Spokesmen for the Palestinian factions denied there was any agreement yet, but they said fighters would observe calm during the talks with Abbas.

Hassan Yousef, the Hamas leader in the West Bank, said his group wanted assurances from Abbas that he will bring Hamas members into Palestinian Authority positions, including the security forces.

"The top priority for a cease-fire is the release of prisoners and to maintain the right to defend our people in the event of an attack," Hamas said in a statement released Sunday.

Participants in the cease-fire talks have said a document being considered calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Hamas in the past has called for Israel's destruction, and acceptance of the document would mean a significant change of position for the Islamic militants.

Mofaz, interviewed on Israel Radio, said Israel would likely hold off on military activities as long as Gaza remains peaceful.

The day was not without violence. In southern Gaza, a bomb exploded next to an Israeli tank near the main bloc of Jewish settlements while, in a separate incident, gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers. There were no injuries.

--Information from the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and Cox News Service was used in this report.

[Last modified January 24, 2005, 01:32:09]