Arafat aide proposes truce with Israel

In the event of such a ceasefire, the Palestinian leadership would ensure that the peace deal is respected if Israel halted all its attacks and closures of the Palestinian territories.

Colonel Jibril al-Rajub, who is the Palestinian leader’s security adviser, told Israeli state radio on Tuesday that the Palestinian leadership would ensure that resistance groups, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, would respect such a ceasefire.

“The Palestinian leadership is ready to proclaim and respect a general ceasefire, but it must be mutual … Israel must stop its attacks and the closing of the (occupied) territories,” he said.

“This indefinite ceasefire must enable the two parties to sit down and discuss a definitive settlement,” al-Rajub said.

Hamas caution

However, Hamas has cautioned the Palestinian Authority against going forward with such a proposal.

Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Usama Hamdan told Aljazeera net that “Israel cannot be believed.”

“Arafat signed the Oslo accords with Israel in full public view 10 years ago. But what has happened since then? We have reached a stage where Arafat is now in danger of being expelled. So how can we trust the Israelis? See the condition Arafat has been reduced to,” Hamdan said.

Arafat called on resistance groups late in August to renew their commitment to  the interim ceasefire, to “stop the war, the killing, the assassinations and daily military escalation”.

However, Hamas rejected the appeal, accusing Israel of “torpedoing the truce with their assassinations of women, children and Palestinian political leaders.”

There was no immediate Israeli reaction to al-Rajub’s proposal on Tuesday.