Hamas offers 18-month cease-fire, urges PA to sever talks with Israel

Talks between senior Hamas members and Egyptian officials in Cairo on a new cease-fire arrangement for the Gaza Strip continued late last night amid new warnings by a top Hamas official that arms smuggling would continue.

The Hamas delegation met with the heads of Egyptian intelligence who transmitted to them Israel's positions. There appears to be disagreement at this point over the length of the truce: Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Ayman Taha, said Hamas would agree to a cease-fire of no more than between one year and 18 months, while the Egyptians are demanding a truce of a number of years' duration. Another Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, said a long-term cease-fire "kills" the right to resistance by the Palestinians.

Hamas and Israeli officials have also indicated that much of the discussion has centered on control of the border crossings in and out of Gaza. Hamas wants the blockade on Gaza lifted. Israel wants assurances that weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip will stop.

The Hamas representative in Lebanon, Omsama Hamdan, yesterday demanded that the leaders of the Palestinian Authority stop negotiations with Israel as a condition for the renewal of dialogue between the Palestinian factions. Ealier, speaking at a rally in Beirut, Hamdan also said that as early as the first day of the cease-fire the organizations had begun to store what armaments had been lost and to develop what they still had. "It is our right to have weapons, and we shall continue to enter arms into Gaza and the West Bank. Let no one think that we shall surrender," Hamdan said at a rally in Beirut. "Those that believe that a number of aircraft carriers could monitor the sea and that satellites in space could monitor underground tunnels and prevent arms from entering into Gaza are delusional," he added.