http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/22/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Palestinians.php

JERUSALEM: Hamas is drafting terms for a temporary cease-fire with Israel while trying to gain support from other Palestinian factions to accept it, Israeli media reported Saturday.

Israel Radio cited senior Hamas officials as saying the militant group is working toward a limited truce with Israel and is in talks with other armed Palestinian groups for their support.

Hamas first floated the idea of a truce in a phone call to an Israeli TV reporter Tuesday from Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas government in Gaza. The proposal was officially made Thursday though Egyptian mediators. Previous truces have been negotiated through Egyptian mediation, but none have held for long.

Palestinian militants fire almost daily rocket barrages at communities in southern Israel and the army has struck back hard, killing 20 Gaza militants in airstrikes and ground operations in the past week.

Hamas officials were not immediately available to comment on the Israel Radio report. A senior member of Islamic Jihad said there has been no discussion between his group and Hamas about a truce.

“We don’t think the priority should be talking about a truce,” said Islamic Jihad’s Nafez Azzam. “Talking about a truce should be directed first to the part that continues the killing and airstrikes. Truce is not on the table now in light of the Israeli aggression.”

Islamic Jihad is responsible for most of the rockets that have disrupted life in southern Israel. Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets at communities in southern Israel and the army has struck back hard, killing 20 Gaza militants in airstrikes and ground operations in the past week.

At least three high-ranking Israeli officials said this week that they favor a conditional cease-fire with Hamas, if the militant group that controls Gaza halts rocket fire into Israel.

On Saturday, Cabinet Minister Ami Ayalon added his voice in favor of the proposal.

Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, also said that Israeli intelligence had failed by not gathering the means to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-affiliated militants last year.

“We could not carry out a military operation to release Shalit because of an intelligence failure,” he said. “The intelligence community did not gather enough information to carry out such an operation.”

Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said Friday, without providing details, that the government was examining the Hamas offer. But Israel’s official position remains that it will not talk to Hamas unless the group renounces all violence, recognizes Israel’s right to exist and accepts previous peace agreements.

Amos Gilad, head of the political department at Israel’s defense ministry, said Saturday that Hamas has no real intention of honoring a truce, and is merely seeking a temporary cease-fire in order to regroup and rearm. Gilad said Israel will press ahead in its fight against militants as long as rocket fire persists.

“From time to time they offer a halt in operations when they have suffered a serious or significant blow,” Gilad told Israel Radio. “They have no intentions of a real truce,” he said.

Taher Nunu, a Hamas government official, said Gilad’s comments are “an attempt to escape the requirements of a truce that it has to live up to. This is a diplomatic rejection of any possible truce,” he said.

Zeev Boim, a Cabinet minister, echoed Gilad’s sentiments in an interview with Channel 1 TV.

“This is a honey trap, they need some breathing room, they are under a lot of pressure,” he said.

Ribhi Rantisi, a Hamas activist in Gaza, also spoke with Channel 1 via telephone from Gaza and had an informal chat with Boim in which he tried to convince the minister about Hamas’ truce intentions.

“We are interested in a cease-fire, we are not begging for it,” he said.

Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June and has been largely isolated since then. An international boycott has put the Hamas government under tremendous pressure, with the coastal strip closed off from the rest of the world and facing severe shortages of basic goods, a 50 percent unemployment rate and a halt to almost all imports and exports.