Hamas to respond to truce proposals on Saturday: official

Cairo: A delegation from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will return to Cairo tomorrow to give a final response to proposals to reach an 18-month truce with Israel, Egypt's state-run media reported yesterday.

Talks between Egyptian intelligence officials and a Hamas delegation ended on Wednesday without a deal. Hamas said Israeli proposals for an agreement, carried through Egypt, were vague.

An unidentified Egyptian official told the Middle East News Agency that Hamas delegates "will come back to Cairo on Saturday to inform the Egyptian officials of the final response".

Separate talks

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Israel have held separate talks with Egyptian mediators on terms for a long-term truce after three weeks of Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave and Hamas rocket barrages on southern Israel. Both sides declared separate ceasefires on January 18, but acts of violence have continued.

Meanwhile, an opinion poll published yesterday shows Hamas received a boost in popularity after the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

According to the latest opinion poll results, Hamas would get 28.6 per cent of the votes, compared with 27.9 per cent for the rival Fatah faction of Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas if elections were held today.

The survey was conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre.

Deadly fighting

It marks the first time that an opinion poll has placed Hamas ahead of the Fatah party, which it ousted from the Gaza Strip in deadly fighting in June 2007.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian man was killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in the early hours of the morning yesterday, according to an army spokesman speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The man was identified by the army as Ala Adin Sharif Abu-Rub, the head of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, in the village of Qabatiya, south of the city of Jenin.

Abu-Rub was killed while the army was attempting to arrest him on suspicion that he was planning a terrorist attack, and an explosive device was discovered in his home after he was shot, the army said.

There were no reported rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip in the south of Israel for the second day, the army said.

Only two days ago, Israeli forces had attacked targets in Gaza after a rocket was fired on the city of Ashkelon.