DDMA Headline Animator

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Palestinians in Gaza agree to one-week cease-fire

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip says his group and Hamas have agreed to stop attacks on Israelis for a week, following Israel's declaration of a unilateral cease-fire.

The Islamic Jihad's Daoud Shihab, says other, smaller, militant groups have also agreed to join the truce. There has been no immediate response from Israel.

Shihab told The Associated Press that the factions will jointly make a formal announcement later on Sunday.

Shihab says a longer cease-fire will be conditional on Israel withdrawing from Gaza the troops it sent into the strip two weeks ago. He says the militants will also demand that Israel open border crossings into Gaza.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A senior Hamas official says Syria-based radical Palestinian groups will declare a cease-fire and give Israel a week to withdraw from Gaza.

The Hamas official's comments came shortly before the group's exiled leader Khaled Mashaal was to make "an important" announcement in Syria Sunday afternoon regarding Israel's unilateral cease-fire declaration.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make the news public to the media.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.