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Hamas prepared for truce in the Gaza Strip: official

A Hamas official says the group has softened its demands for a ceasefire with Israel.

Spokesman Ghazi Hamad says Hamas is now prepared for a partial truce that would only include the Gaza Strip. Hamad says the proposal has been relayed to Egyptian mediators.

This is a dramatic departure for Hamas. The group previously has demanded the West Bank be included in any deal.

In return, Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to open their trade and passenger crossings with Gaza, which have been sealed since Hamas violently seized control of Gaza last June.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s state-run newspaper al-Ahram said yesterday that Egyptian negotiators had reached a preliminary agreement with Hamas on a truce with Israel.

“Egypt has reached a preliminary agreement with Hamas on the methods of achieving a period of calm with the Israelis, and [intelligence chief] Omar Suleiman will relay the results of these contacts and the principles of the agreement to Israel to reach a final agreement,” the paper said.

Al-Ahram attributed the information to “an informed source,” but the comments came in the context of comments by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to reporters accompanying him on a visit to France.

In related news, Israel said yesterday that a mission by former US president Jimmy Carter to work out a ceasefire with Hamas had failed.

Senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said Hamas presented nothing new in its demands for a truce during Carter’s meetings over the weekend with Hamas officials in Damascus. Gilad told Israel’s Army Radio that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal had not budged in his demands, and thus Carter had failed.

In other news, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian gunmen in the northern part of the Gaza Strip yesterday near the Erez border crossing with Israel, Palestinian officials and the Israeli army said.

Islamic Jihad and a militant group belonging to the Fatah faction said three of their fighters were killed while trying to attack an army base near the crossing.
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