Hamas accepts Egyptian truce proposal: report (Roundup)

Feb 1, 2009, 14:19 GMT

Jerusalem/Cairo - Hamas has accepted an Egyptian plan to establish a long-term truce with Israel, the al-Arabiya Arabic channel reported Sunday, as caretaker Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert threatened a 'fierce and disproportionate' response to continued rocket fire on the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian and Egyptian news agencies had earlier reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed a trip to the Czech Republic to visit Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on Monday following what Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Shaath, called a 'breakthrough' in negotiations in the Cairo ceasefire negotiations.

Shaath did not elaborate, and Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki likewise refused to comment on reports that Hamas had accepted the Egyptian ceasefire plan.

A Hamas delegation is set to arrive in the Egyptian capital Monday.

Israel has stressed that it is not negotiating with Hamas, but with Egypt and the international community. It said its conditions for a truce are that Hamas halt rocket fire at Israel, and there be an end to the smuggling of weapons into the salient.

Two weeks ago Israel and then Hamas separately announced unilateral ceasefires, ending three weeks of intense fighting in the Gaza Strip, which Israel launched in response to continued rocket fire.

The sides have clashed since the ceasefires went into effect on January 18, with Gaza-based militants sporadically firing rockets and Israel hitting back with air strikes.

Four rockets and mortar shells hit Israel Sunday, and Olmert, addressing ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, said he had told the defence minister to order the military to prepare a response to the rocket fire.

'We will act according to new rules which will ensure that we are not dragged into an endless shooting war along the southern border,' Olmert said at the cabinet meeting.

'The Israeli action and the Israeli response will be given at the time, place and according to the method we will decide,' he said.

In the Gaza Strip itself, meanwhile, officials at the enclave's main power station said it would stop working later in the day due to insufficient supplies of industrial diesel allowed through the Israel-Gaza border crossings.

The Gaza power plant supplies up to 30 per cent of the salient's electricity, with Israel providing 60 per cent and Egypt 10 per cent.

Suhail Skeik, the director of the Gaza power station, said in a statement sent to reporters Sunday that the station has reduced its power output since Friday, working at half capacity.

Israel has been allowing humanitarian aid to cross into the Strip, but has closed the crossing points several times since the end of the fighting, in response to rocket attacks.

'Since Wednesday, we received 450,000 litres of industrial diesel, for operating the power station, while on Thursday Israel only allowed 90,000 litres, and on Friday and Saturday no fuels were allowed,' Skeik said.

He warned that preventing fuels within the coming two or three days 'would again cause a severe humanitarian crisis, simply because there is no cooking gas and the hospitals' need for permanent electricity.'