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Cease-Fire Talk Floats Amid Gaza Strife

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Times Staff Writer

Militants in the Gaza Strip fired three rockets into Israel and an Israeli helicopter fired at least two missiles into a building in northwest Gaza on Sunday as speculation continued about a possible cease-fire with Israel.

There were no reports of casualties from the incidents.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement was swept out of control of the government by the Islamic militant group Hamas this year, met with Hamas-appointed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday in Gaza City, along with representatives from Islamic Jihad and other militant groups.

Abbas proposed that the militias end their cross-border rocket attacks in exchange for a pledge by Israel to end artillery shelling and tank incursions into the Gaza Strip, officials said. But it’s unclear whether any agreement was reached.

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Former Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, a high-ranking Fatah official, told reporters that all factions agreed to the proposal in principle -- a contention quickly denied by several factions.

“The idea was raised, but there wasn’t an agreement,” said Abu Thaer, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Still representatives from several Palestinian armed groups said they had no objection to the concept of a cease-fire, raising the prospect that Hamas might pursue an independent deal, separate from Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The recent violence in both places was touched off by the abduction of Israeli soldiers, one near Gaza and two during a Hezbollah raid into Israel that also left eight Israeli soldiers dead.

“I’m against linking the fate of the soldier in Gaza with the fate of the two soldiers in Lebanon,” said Abu Thaer, who said Gaza militants could never hold out against a sustained Israeli assault like Hezbollah can. “The resources of the resistance in Palestine are much more limited.”

The agreement, as discussed during the Saturday meeting, would probably be acceptable to many Palestinian militant factions since it deals strictly with an end to the back-and-forth attacks while not touching on the fate of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier taken hostage June 25.

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The raid that captured Shalit was carried out by the Popular Revolutionary Committees, the Izzidin al-Qassam Brigade and a previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Islam. Although the Qassam Brigade is the military wing of Hamas, it doesn’t answer to local political leaders such as Haniyeh.

The prime minister doesn’t have the authority to cut any deals involving Shalit’s release and, even if he could, he would still have to gain the approval of the other groups involved.

“Hamas cannot accept any deal like that by itself,” said Abu Mugahid, a 22-year-old spokesman for the Popular Revolutionary Committees.

It remains to be seen whether Israeli politicians would sign off on a deal that would at least temporarily leave Shalit in the hands of his Palestinian captors.

Observers and analysts here say that Hamas has tried not to identify itself too closely with Hezbollah’s cause. During a sermon Friday, Haniyeh made repeated statements of solidarity with the Lebanese people, but made far fewer references to Hezbollah.

“They don’t want to be in the same basket and bring the wrath of the United States,” said Ashraf Ajrami, head of the Israeli Affairs Department in the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information.

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Hamas would benefit greatly from a temporary end to hostilities. Haniyeh’s government has been hamstrung since it took power four months ago by a U.S.-backed blockade on desperately needed financial aid. Most civil servants have gone without salaries, and services in Gaza such as garbage collection are starting to break down.

Minister of Health Bassem Naim said he has ordered a delay on nonemergency surgeries such as tonsillectomies and hernia operations because he’s running short on anesthesia. He recently sent a letter to his Jordanian counterpart asking for an emergency shipment of measles vaccine.

Still, a separate deal runs the risk of being viewed as a betrayal. Gaza is a tangle of overlapping armed groups with differing ideologies, and Hamas must tread carefully to avoid accusations of selling out.

“We cannot accept a cease-fire agreement that doesn’t involve Lebanon,” said Abu Mugahid, the spokesman for the Popular Revolutionary Committees.

“We regard the Lebanese resistance as part of our cause.”

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