Truce being the key word, and it's only a six month truce. If Israel would agree to the terms, which I don't think they would as the conditions set Hamas stand are unacceptable, then Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups would use the time to rebuild their forces.
Israel, which wants Palestinians to stop firing cross-border rockets, has dismissed the offer as a Hamas ploy to gain time to prepare for more fighting.Reuters
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CAIRO (Reuters) - The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said on Tuesday any possible truce with Israel would not restrict its right to respond to strikes by the Jewish state in the West Bank.
Abu Emad al-Rifaie, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, said the group told Egyptian mediators that it approved -- with qualifications -- a Hamas proposal for a truce with Israel that starts in the Gaza Strip.
"This approval is under the condition that in the event of any Israeli aggression against our mujahideen (fighters) or people in the West Bank ... we reserve our right to respond to such massacres," he told Reuters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
The Islamist movement Hamas has said extending the ceasefire to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was "an option".
Egypt invited 12 Palestinian groups for talks to form a consensus on Hamas' six-month ceasefire proposal last week between Palestinians and Israel. Hamas, which controls Gaza, said the proposal would also include an end to the Israeli-led blockade on the strip.
A truce between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza would lift some pressure off Egypt, a key regional mediator, which does not want to be viewed as aiding the blockade on Gaza or see Palestinian militants storm its border with the coastal strip as Hamas gunmen did earlier this year, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to cross into Sinai.
Failure of Palestinians to reach common ground or Israeli rejection of the truce would complicate Egyptian efforts to end violence in the Gaza Strip.
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