Gaza armed groups agree to halt rockets

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hamas’s armed wing on Sunday said that armed groups in its Gaza Strip stronghold had finalised a deal to stop firing rockets into Israel, but said that they would respond to Israeli raids.
However one faction, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), denied it had signed up to the agreement.
“The agreement between (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam (Brigades) and other factions to stop rocket (fire) is not a sign of weakness,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement.
The agreement is “aimed at keeping together the internal front and the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people.”
It warned, however, that the groups would respond in the case of Israeli strikes on the territory.
“Al-Qassam Brigades will not stand idly by in case of a Zionist escalation and will defend ourselves with all our force.”
A statement from the PFLP armed wing the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades rejected the agreement to halt rocket attacks.
“We affirm that we were not part of any agreement on stopping the firing of rockets at Israel or to neutralise any form of legitimate resistance as granted by all international codes and conventions,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres on Sunday acknowledged differences over the contentious issue of Jerusalem, after talks in Cairo.
“I don’t deny there are differences in our positions, but I believe they are bridgeable,” Peres told reporters after the talks.
He said Jerusalem was under Israeli sovereignty and any change in the status quo had to come through negotiations.
Israel views all of Jerusalem as its “unified, eternal” capital, but the international community has never recognised its claim to east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have demanded as the capital of their future state.
The fate of east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed, is one of the thorniest issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Jerusalem is not only a Palestinian problem but it is an issue that concerns all Muslims around the world,” Mubarak said.
“If we don’t find a solution to Jerusalem... Israel will make enemies of all Muslims around the world.
“I have stressed on this issue because we want Jerusalem to be one of the topics discussed at the negotiating table,” Mubarak said.