Palestine agrees to 9-month ceasefire

Christians from different countries pray next to the walls of Jerusalem's Old City Thursday, with the Al-Aqsa mosques compound, Islam's third holiest shrine, in the background. Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei appealed to Israel to thwart any strike against the mosque, amid reports that Jewish extremists were plotting to take over the disputed holy site to disrupt the planned evacuation of the Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AFP

Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest ever ceasefire promise and a success for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. But they warned that the truce will collapse if Israel does not hold its own fire and release Palestinian prisoners.

Abbas had been seeking a public commitment from the armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to a long-term ceasefire in order to put pressure on Israel to move forward in the peace process -- and the step brought praise from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Sharon said the announcement Thursday was a "positive first step," though he insisted that for greater progress to take place "terrorist organizations cannot continue to exist as armed groups." A top aide to Sharon, Ranaan Gissin, said Israel would continue to refrain from military action as long as Palestinians cease violence against Israelis.

The declaration was agreed to by the 13 main Palestinian factions including Hamas and Jihad after three days of talks in 6th of October City, outside Cairo. It extends a shaky ceasefire that began early last month, and Abbas is hoping that it will prove more durable than ones in the past. But Hamas and Jihad -- the main groups that have waged a campaign of violence against Israel -- preserved a broad loophole allowing them to call an end to the ceasefire. The declaration says the halt in violence is conditional on Israel's halting all military operations against Palestinians and releasing all 8,000 Palestinian prisoners, a step Israel has shown no sign of taking.

"What has been agreed upon is that the period of calm will have an upper time limit which is the end of the year," said Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas leader. "But ending the period of calm will be in our hands, especially if there is no adherence to the conditions."

The term of the deal was somewhat shorter than the full year Abbas had been seeking going into the talks, and the Palestinians avoided the use of the word "ceasefire" or "truce" in their declaration -- using instead the weaker term "atmosphere of calm." The final agreement issued by the factions, including Abbas' ruling Fatah party, also underlined that the Palestinians maintain their "right to resistance in order to end the Israeli occupation."

Still, pressure is high on the militants to stick to the full nine-month truce, even if a full prisoner release does not come soon and even if there are military frictions with Israelis on the ground.

Abbas hopes a declaration will fire back up the optimism that filled the peace process after he succeeded the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian leader. In particular, he believes it will get Israel to carry out its promises to hand over more West Bank towns and carry out prisoner releases -- and eventually lead to a return to broader negotiations.

Hamas and Jihad called a ceasefire in early February and violence has dropped dramatically since. Abbas and Sharon held a landmark Feb. 8 summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, calling a halt to all violence. The peace was shaken, however, by a deadly Islamic Jihad suicide bombing on Feb. 24 that prompted Israel to freeze its promised handover of West Bank towns and freeing of some prisoners. The militants' previous promise to halt violence came in June 2003, with a ceasefire due to last three months that instead fell apart after only six weeks.

Abbas "now can go to Israel and to the US and tell them that he has done his homework, and they have to help him in consolidating the truce by more concessions," said Hani Masry, a Palestinian political analyst.