Hamas Says Differences Remain on Egyptian Truce Plan

Reuters Created: Jan 14, 2009 Last Updated: Jan 14, 2009
Smoke billows from the Gaza Strip following an Israeli air strike as seen from the Israel-Gaza border. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
CAIRO—A Hamas leader said on Wednesday that points of difference remained over an Egyptian proposal to end the fighting between Israel and the Islamist group.

"There are still points of difference on the initiative and these points have not been resolved so far," Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said in an interview broadcast on Al Jazeera television.

"The initiative in its present form does not realise the (Palestinian national) interest. Specific points in it have to be changed... We believe there is no initiative which cannot be modified or changed," he added.

The Arabic television channel Al Arabiya and the Spanish newspaper El Pais, quoting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, said Hamas had accepted the Egyptian proposal.

The original proposal was for a temporary truce to allow for talks on long-term arrangements to secure the Egypt-Gaza border and end the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

But the proposal may have changed during secret negotiations mediated by Egypt over the past week. {et Related 10320, 10315, 9957, 9856, 9659, 9594}