Abbas secures truce

Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar holds a press conference following his meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Gaza City Saturday. Abbas held key talks with leaders of the Islamic militant group Hamas in a bid to persuade them to sign up to a permanent ceasefire with Israel. PHOTO: AFP

Israel approved the release of some 500 Palestinians from its jails yesterday after Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas secured a pledge from radical Islamists to refrain from attacks.

The widely-anticipated decision was unanimously approved at a committee meeting chaired by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who held a landmark summit with Abbas in Egypt last week.

In fast-paced moves to cement the truce, Israel said it will transfer control of the West Bank town of Jericho to Palestinians this coming week. As part of the cease-fire, Israel has pledged to return five West Bank towns the others are Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Ramallah to Palestinian control within three weeks.

Leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad met Saturday with Abbas, who is trying to keep the fragile cease-fire intact and end mxore than four years of fighting.

The two groups had already agreed to halt attacks before the cease-fire agreement at Tuesday's summit in Egypt.

A Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, told The Associated Press the group will wait to see whether Israel stops its military activities and targeted killings of Palestinian militants before deciding whether to sign on to the official ceasefire.

Zahar, after meeting Abbas, said Hamas was "committed to what is called 'quietness'" until it determines whether Israel meets its truce obligations, including disclosing the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners.

"Up to this moment, we are committed to the previous agreement with Mr. Abbas, and we are going to see how the Israelis" act, Zahar told the AP.

Hamas was behind dozens of suicide bombings and attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis. On Thursday, it upset the Sharon-Abbas truce by training dozens of rockets and mortars on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Though Israel gave no timetable for the return of the deported Palestinians, one of the exiles, Ghanem Sweilem, told reporters in Gaza City on Saturday that they expect to go home within a week or two.

"Today, we received good news that an agreement was reached with the Israeli side to allow us to return to our cities ... each to his home, each to his city, within a short period of time," said Sweilem, who was exiled from his home in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus more than two years ago.