Hamas: No plan to renew truce
Reuters
Date: 11-23-05
GAZA (Reuters) - The militant Islamic group Hamas said on Wednesday it did not plan to renew a truce at the end of the year, but would not say whether that meant it would resume attacks on Israel immediately after the agreement expires.
A Hamas spokesman said only that the group would prefer not to discuss a new truce before a Palestinian parliamentary poll on January 25, which Hamas will contest for the first time.
Hamas, which has spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign against Israel over the past decade, has largely complied with the de facto truce brokered by Egypt and declared in March.
"The group will not be committed to any agreement until we reach a new agreement after the parliamentary election," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Hamas has used the truce as leverage over President Mahmoud Abbas, whose mainstream Fatah faction is expected to win the election. Abbas is under intense international pressure to curtail militant attacks against Israel.
Hamas, seen as the main threat to Fatah in the ballot, is expected to win about 30 percent of the vote.
Abu Zuhri said it was not certain that Hamas would agree to abide by another truce after the election.
"The current conditions do not encourage the movement to pursue calm. Therefore, all parties concerned with the success of national dialogue must pressure the (Israeli) occupation to comply with the conditions made by the factions," he said.
Palestinian factions have demanded that Israel release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, curtail military operations in Palestinian areas and halt the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
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