GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militant groups weighed Monday a cease-fire with Israel in an Egyptian mediation bid to salvage a U.S.-backed peace plan.
"We are undergoing serious negotiations with Hamas with the help of our Egyptian brothers, so therefore we would certainly not like to discuss now anything that could negatively affect that effort," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said.
"I hope that we will get their (Hamas') answer maybe tomorrow (Tuesday)," he said after talks with European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Hamas officials were non-committal after Egyptian envoys wrapped up two days of talks with militants in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on ending bloodletting and kick-starting the "road map" to peace.
"We have listened to the ideas and the proposals and we are studying them in order to respond to them," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' founder, told Reuters.
Mohammed al-Hindi, a top Islamic Jihad official who also met the Egyptian envoys, said any truce agreed by the group would not include Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers, a non-starter for Israel.
A surge of violence since a June 4 peace summit attended by President Bush (news - web sites), Israeli leader Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has jeopardised the road map affirmed at the gathering in Aqaba, Jordan.
The bloodshed has included the killing of four Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus in which 17 died and Israeli air attacks that have killed more than 20 Palestinian militants and civilians.
PRESSURE ON HAMAS
Hamas has said it would cease attacking Israelis in a 32-month-old uprising for independence only when Israel ended its occupation of land Palestinians claim for a state.
But Israel has put new pressure on the group by pledging to strike at its top leaders, backing up its threats by wounding one of Hamas's best-known spokesmen, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, in a helicopter missile attack in Gaza last Tuesday.
Hamas officials said they remained opposed to the peace plan, which calls for an end to violence and the start of reciprocal confidence-building steps between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
U.S. envoy John Wolf was to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom later in the day and with Abbas Tuesday.
While the Egyptian envoys pursued truce efforts, Israel repeated its demand for Abbas to take the politically risky step of dismantling militant groups, as mandated by the road map, after any truce agreement.
Abbas has resisted confronting the militants, fearing a possible Palestinian civil war.
Israel also said it would continue to target "ticking bombs," its term for militants planning suicide attacks.
In parallel talks, Israeli and Palestinian security officials discussed Sunday possible Israeli troop withdrawals from northern Gaza and the West Bank city of Bethlehem in exchange for a Palestinian pledge to rein in militants there
"We are undergoing serious negotiations with Hamas with the help of our Egyptian brothers, so therefore we would certainly not like to discuss now anything that could negatively affect that effort," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said.
"I hope that we will get their (Hamas') answer maybe tomorrow (Tuesday)," he said after talks with European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Hamas officials were non-committal after Egyptian envoys wrapped up two days of talks with militants in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on ending bloodletting and kick-starting the "road map" to peace.
"We have listened to the ideas and the proposals and we are studying them in order to respond to them," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' founder, told Reuters.
Mohammed al-Hindi, a top Islamic Jihad official who also met the Egyptian envoys, said any truce agreed by the group would not include Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers, a non-starter for Israel.
A surge of violence since a June 4 peace summit attended by President Bush (news - web sites), Israeli leader Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has jeopardised the road map affirmed at the gathering in Aqaba, Jordan.
The bloodshed has included the killing of four Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus in which 17 died and Israeli air attacks that have killed more than 20 Palestinian militants and civilians.
PRESSURE ON HAMAS
Hamas has said it would cease attacking Israelis in a 32-month-old uprising for independence only when Israel ended its occupation of land Palestinians claim for a state.
But Israel has put new pressure on the group by pledging to strike at its top leaders, backing up its threats by wounding one of Hamas's best-known spokesmen, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, in a helicopter missile attack in Gaza last Tuesday.
Hamas officials said they remained opposed to the peace plan, which calls for an end to violence and the start of reciprocal confidence-building steps between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
U.S. envoy John Wolf was to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom later in the day and with Abbas Tuesday.
While the Egyptian envoys pursued truce efforts, Israel repeated its demand for Abbas to take the politically risky step of dismantling militant groups, as mandated by the road map, after any truce agreement.
Abbas has resisted confronting the militants, fearing a possible Palestinian civil war.
Israel also said it would continue to target "ticking bombs," its term for militants planning suicide attacks.
In parallel talks, Israeli and Palestinian security officials discussed Sunday possible Israeli troop withdrawals from northern Gaza and the West Bank city of Bethlehem in exchange for a Palestinian pledge to rein in militants there
