A truce has taken place between Palestine and Israel to end a 5 month-old Israeli offensive in occupied Gaza. The ceasefire went into effect at 6 am today, and may lead to a summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. 30 minutes before the ceasefire began, Palestinian militants fired three rockets into Israeli territory, doing minimal damage to a building. The Israeli army killed 3 Palestinians Saturday, and injured four others. Israel withdrew troops from Gaza last year, but resumed ground operations in June.

The agreement was reached after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Saturday to inform him that all Palestinian militant groups had reached an agreement to stop rocket attacks into Israel. Abbas asked that Israel reciprocate by stopping its military operations in Gaza and withdraw its forces. Against the will of earlier government reports, Olmert finally agreed to the conditions of the ceasefire. Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Olmert, said, “The prime minister… told Abbas that Israel would respond favourably as Israel was operating in the Gaza Strip in response to the violence. With the end of violence Israel would be happy to withdraw its troops.” A military spokeswoman said that all Israeli troops had been pulled out overnight.

The ceasefire would reinstate a truce reached in Egypt in February 2005. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Abbas spokesman, said, “There is a signed agreement between the president, and Prime Minister Haniyeh, and all the Palestinian factions to resort to the agreement of the factions in Cairo in 2005, including ceasing all the military activity from Gaza, starting from Sunday morning. The Israeli prime minister has agreed, and it is going to start tomorrow morning.”

The leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, said he was willing to give peace negotiations six months to reach an agreement for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, but threatened a new uprising if the talks fail. This was the first time Hamas has set a deadline with an explicit threat of a third uprising should Israel go back on its word. “We give six months to open real political horizons … We agreed on the national accord to establish a Palestinian state, with the June 4, 1967 borders… They have to seize this opportunity,” Mashaal told a news conference in Cairo. He also said there had been no breakthroughs on the formation of a Palestinian unity government, or a prisoner swap for the Israel soldier.

source 1
source 2