Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who is also an
official of Hamas, announced on Monday night that Hamas and Fatah
have agreed on a cease-fire in Gaza which will take effect in three
hours.
The cease-fire would start from 3 AM (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday,
Zahar declared after talks between Palestinian Prime Minister
Ismail Haneya and the a top representative of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas.
According to the cease-fire, the two conflicting parties should
withdraw their militants from the streets and remove all
checkpoints.
It was reported that the two sides also agreed to resume
dialogue during the talks with the presence of an Egyptian
delegation, which has been busy in mediation in the past days.
The cease-fire was reached just less than a day after a suicide
bombing attack in southern Israeli city of Eilat that killed three
local Israelis.
Palestinians have been on the edge of civil war in the past few
days with bloody bout of factional fighting between rival Hamas and
Fatah.
The five-day refreshed fighting starting from Thursday has
claimed 32 Palestinian lives.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)
