Hamas agrees truce, announcement within 48 hrs

Hamas had accepted the truce in return for the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, Mussa Abu Marzuk, the Islamist movements deputy leader, was quoted by AFP as telling state news agency MENA after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

"We have agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half (in return) for the opening of all six passages between the Gaza Strip and Israel," he said.

Egypt will announce the agreement after contacting Israel and Palestinian factions, he said.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP in Jerusalem that he did not wish to comment.

Abu Marzuk, who headed a senior Hamas delegation in Cairo, said difficulties that had prevented an agreement have been resolved, especially the issue of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel had insisted that Hamas release Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants more than two years ago, as a condition for ending its blockade of Gaza, which it imposed after Hamas violently seized the enclave in June 2007.

Marzuk said that Shalit has been removed from the Gaza truce deal and that he will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, told AFP that that "we have surpassed the Shalit issue," adding that Hamas did not want to hold Shalit indefinitely but wanted to exchange him for Palestinian prisoners.

"There are ongoing efforts for the Shalit issue but they are separate from the truce," he said.

Hamas leaders centered its truce demands on a reopening of the tiny coastal territory’s borders, which have been largely sealed by Egypt and Israel since Hamas gunmen seized control in Gaza in 2007.

Israel, in turn, insisted that any cease-fire must include an end to militants firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel and a halt to Hamas arms smuggling.

It was not clear what effect recent elections in Israel would have on any prospective deal over Gaza.

Besides mediating a truce for Gaza, Egypt also is trying to bring Hamas and its Palestinian rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, into talks on reconciling and forming a unity government that can move ahead with peace negotiations with Israel. Egypt hopes to host a reconciliation conference Feb. 22.

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