Hamas truce offer

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has proposed a six-month truce with Israel in the disputed Gaza Strip.

The ceasefire could end recent fighting and may be extended to include the troubled West Bank border territory.

Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said: "The movement agrees to a truce in the Gaza Strip fixed at six months, during which period Egypt will work to extend the truce to the West Bank."

"The truce must be mutual and simultaneous and the blockade must be lifted and the crossing points opened, including the Rafah crossing point (between Gaza and Egypt)."

Other Palestinian factions, including the Islamic Jihad militant group and leftist groups based in Damascus, have also approved the offer, Mr Zahar said.

Egypt will act as a mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, which pulled its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 but still controls borders and has tightened restrictions since Hamas seized control last year.

Israeli forces have been targeting Hamas members in Gaza and Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel in sporadic outbreaks of violence.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 10 days and three Israeli soldiers were killed on the border with Gaza on April 16.

Israel says it is ready for "quiet" at the Gaza border, but that it would require a complete halt to attacks by Hamas on Israelis, a stop to cross-border rocket fire from all Palestinian groups and an end to weapon smuggling into Gaza.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said: "We can't have a period of quiet that will just be the quiet before the storm."

Israeli officials said they were sceptical about the chances of reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

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