Palestinian militants talk truce in Cairo
Palestinian militant groups were in Cairo yesterday for Egyptian-mediated talks on a possible truce with Israel that has already been approved by the Islamist Hamas.
The Palestinian factions travelled from Gaza, Damascus and Amman for two-days of talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of mediating Palestinian-Israeli talks.
Egypt has been serving as a go-between in truce negotiations as Israel refuses any direct contacts with organisations it considers terror groups.
"Meetings with Suleiman are set to begin at 6 pm (1500 GMT)," Rabah Mohanna, from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told AFP.
Other factions include the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Struggle Front (PSF) and Islamic Jihad, which fires most of Gaza's rockets at Israel.
The truce talks are taking place against a background of ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip where four children and their mother were killed in an explosion on Monday.
Palestinian witnesses blamed it on an Israeli missile, countering the Israeli army's statement that the blast was caused when explosives carried by Palestinian militants detonated during the air strike.
On the same day, Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza damaged an Israeli house.
Senior Hamas leader and former prime minister Ismail Haniya described the "massacre" as part of Israel's "constant attempts to destroy any regional or international effort to lift the siege and end the violence."
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that "this aggression does not serve the efforts being exerted to bring about a period of calm and hinders the peace process."
Following the killings, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel "deeply regrets that civilians not involved (in the violence) are affected."
Hamas last week told the Egyptians it would be ready to accept a truce first in the Gaza Strip, to be followed six months later in the West Bank.
Israel has expressed doubts about Hamas's intentions but said it would consider a truce if Hamas stopped firing rockets at Israeli territory and attacking border positions.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar warned on Tuesday that Palestinian armed groups would use "every means" against Israel if it does not accept a proposed truce in and around the Gaza Strip.
Addressing hundreds of students at Gaza's Islamic University, Zahar said his Islamist movement was awaiting a response from Israel to a truce proposal, as several smaller Palestinian factions met in Cairo to discuss the plan.
"They can answer yes or no, but if they answer no, then an isolated, starving people, and the well-known Palestinian factions among them, will have no choice but to use every means against Israel to defend ourselves," he said.
Abbas was in Egypt on Sunday and gave his "unconditional" support to Egypt's efforts, asking the Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Nabil Amr, to monitor the talks on behalf of his Fatah movement.
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