If true, Israel should discontinue their assassination policy immediately.
…
JERUSALEM (CNN) – The Palestinian radical groups Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad agreed Wednesday to a three-month suspension of attacks against Israelis, senior Palestinian officials said.
The three sent a document to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and an announcement was expected later in the day.
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that Arafat has given his blessing to the deal, and that Palestinians were waiting for Israel to offer its assurance it would stop targeted killings of radical leaders.
As word came of the cease-fire agreement, Israel carried out an attack in Gaza against what an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said was a Hamas militant on his way to carry out a mortar attack. The IDF spokesman said two rockets were fired from a helicopter at a car carrying Hamas cell members.
Palestinians said the target of the attack, Mohammed Abu Siam, survived but had to have his leg amputated. Two bystanders in the car traveling behind the Hamas militant were hit and killed, and 11 others were wounded, three of them critically, Palestinian sources said. The attack occurred near the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Younis in southern Gaza
A formal announcement of the cease-fire agreement is expected in Cairo, Egypt, where a number of officials from the radical groups have gathered. Israel has not responded.
The wording of the agreement specifies halting all attacks for a three-month period. There had been concerns that a halt would apply only to attacks on civilians, but the wording says all attacks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had been pressing the militants for a cease-fire for weeks, since he called for an end to the armed intifada during a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jordan.
All sides have pointed to a cease-fire as a necessary step before moving forward with the U.S.-backed “road map” for peace.
That document, drafted by the United Nations, Russia, the United States and the European Union calls for a Palestinian state by 2005. But incremental steps toward full implementation include Palestinians clamping down on terror groups and Israel dismantling settlement outposts built since 2001.
Wednesday’s tentative truce document was circulated among members of the radical groups in Damascus, Syria, as well as to Marwan Barghouti, a top leader in Arafat’s Fatah movement, the mainstream faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Barghouti is on trial in Israel on charges of carrying out attacks on Israelis.
If there is a deal, Israel will be pressed to confirm it will stop its targeted attacks on radical leaders. Rudeineh called on the United States to press Israel to give that assurance. He said Israeli officials had not shown up at a scheduled security meeting with Palestinian officials set for Wednesday