UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
18:26 Mecca time, 15:26 GMT
 
News Middle East
Palestinians to discuss truce plan
The factions to discuss a six-month truce with Israel, aimed at easing a blockade on the Gaza Strip [AFP]

Palestinian factions are due to meet in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials in a bid to draft a common position on a truce with Israel.

 

The factions are to hold talks with Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, on Tuesday and Wednesday to furthe

"Each faction will meet with Suleiman separately, and then they will have a joint meeting," a security official said.

 

The Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip held similar talks in Egypt last week.

Hamas said it was ready to accept a phased ceasefire that would start in Gaza and extend to the West Bank after six months.

 

Ceasefire proposal 

 

The group proposed a six-month truce with Israel, aimed at easing a blockade on the Gaza Strip. 

 

It offered to cease cross-border rocket attacks if Israel opens crossing points into Gaza and ends military incursions into the Palestinian territory.

 

Israel raised doubts about the movement's intentions, but suggested there could be a tacit truce if Hamas stopped rocket fire.

 

Members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Struggle Front (PSF), crossed into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

 

Islamic Jihad said it planned to send a delegation from Damascus to Cairo.

 

The truce proposal comes as the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said it would resume distributing food aid to some 650,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza on Tuesday after a four-day interruption caused by fuel shortages.

 Source: Al Jazeera and Agencies
 
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