All Palestinian Factions Agree to Ceasefire

From The Hindu News Update Service.

all the Palestinian militant factions have agreed to an Egypt-mediated ceasefire with Israel, "starting in the Gaza strip".

"All the Palestinian factions have agreed to the Egyptian proposal on a truce with Israel," Egyptian state news agency, MENA said citing an unnamed high level Egyptian official.

The Egyptian proposal included a "comprehensive, reciprocal and simultaneous truce, implemented in a graduated framework, starting in the Gaza Strip and then subsequently moving to the West Bank, the official said.

The BBC also gives details.

I find this stuff by checking Google News occasionally.

Comments

[Alison Chaiken]

The BBC article makes it sound like Fatah has not agreed, although perhaps they would if Israel played ball with them.

Are the 12 smaller Palestinian factions presumably the non-Fatah part of PLO? We don't hear too much about the PLO any more, at least not in the media I read. How significant are those non-Fatah factions?

[Leila Abu-Saba]

I'm not sure Alison, but I *think* it's that Fatah is already playing ball with Israel. It's the Hamas allied factions that are fighting. But I have been trying to detach myself from the whole business so I don't have the answers. Sorry...