Hamas Ready to Accept Gaza Truce

Hamas said today it is prepared to accept a partial truce that would cover only the Gaza Strip, in an apparent softening of the Islamist group's position.

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, said the proposal had been relayed to Egyptian mediators. The apparent shift in Hamas' position came amid reports that Egypt has brokered a preliminary agreement on a truce between the group and Israel.

In the past, Hamas has demanded that the West Bank - which is under the control of its Fatah rivals - be part of any deal. In return, Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to open their border crossings with Gaza. Israel and Egypt have both largely sealed their borders with the territory since Hamas wrested control from Fatah last June.

Israeli sources credit the turnabout in Hamas's position to the economic and military pressure on Gaza, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. It said senior Israeli officials had noted a change in Hamas positions in recent days, at least in seeking a lull in fighting in Gaza. But Israel has yet to commit itself officially to a ceasefire and is waiting for a detailed proposal to be delivered via Egypt.

"Egypt has reached a preliminary agreement with Hamas on the methods of achieving a period of calm with the Israelis, and [the 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 state newspaper al-Ahram said.

Suleiman, one of the most trusted aides of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, has been working hard to try to secure several objectives: a period of calm that halts both Hamas rocket fire and Israeli attacks but falls short of a formal ceasefire; reconciliation between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which Cairo still sees as the legitimate Palestinian government; and a reopening of the Gaza border crossings, which is vital to relieve the territory's humanitarian crisis.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said last week that Egypt was making good progress in trying to negotiate a tacit ceasefire, including a prisoner exchange, between Israel and Hamas.

Israel today said it had opened a key border crossing with Gaza to allow food shipments for the first time in four days. An Israeli army spokesman said the Sufa cargo crossing was open, and the manager of Sufa said trucks carrying flour, oil and fruit were entering Gaza.

Israel had closed Gaza's crossings on Friday after deadly attacks. Palestinian militants view the crossings as a symbol of Israel's control of the territory that is home to 1.4 million people.

In the latest violence, Israeli troops today killed three Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza near a border crossing. 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 Erez crossing. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the gunmen were hit from the air and by ground forces near the border fence.

Yesterday, the former US president Jimmy Carter said Hamas would accept a two-state peace agreement with Israel as long as it was approved by a Palestinian referendum or a newly elected government.

Carter, who spoke in Jerusalem after meetings with Hamas figures in the West Bank, Cairo and Damascus, said they had told him they would support the results of a referendum or election on a final status peace agreement negotiated by Abbas, even if Hamas itself opposed the agreement.

But Carter admitted failure in trying to convince Hamas to begin a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza.