JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip - The Palestinian prime minister said Friday that militants were prepared to stop firing rockets at Israel if it would halt all military action in Palestinian territories. Israel rejected the offer, saying it would respond positively only to a total truce.

Wounded Israeli soldiers are treated near Kibbutz Mefalsim in southern Israel, after a roadside bomb exploded near an armored vehicle in the Gaza Strip, Friday, Nov. 24 2006. [AP]

Similar proposals in the past have failed to curb fighting, and a spokesman for the ruling Hamas group quickly stepped back from the cease-fire talk, which came as fighting between militants and Israeli troops in Gaza claimed the lives of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and a militant filming the clashes.

Special coverage: Middle East Conflict Related readings: Grandmother blows herself up in Gaza

A third Palestinian died Friday of wounds sustained in earlier violence. It wasn't immediately known whether he was a militant or civilian.

Israeli launched a military campaign in Gaza five months ago, in an unsuccessful attempt to curb militant rocket fire on Israeli border communities.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said armed factions had agreed Thursday to halt rocket fire in exchange for a complete cessation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

"The ball now is in the Israeli court," Haniyeh said. "It (Israel) must stop its aggression and escalation against the Palestinian people, then there will be no problem according to what the factions agreed in their last meeting."

After meeting with faction leaders again Friday night, Haniyeh urged the Israelis "to respect this positive readiness expressed by the Palestinian resistance factions." And government spokesman Ghazi Hamad suggested that a broader cease-fire was possible if Israel were to take up the militants' offer.

"After that, we (the Palestinians) will talk about a comprehensive truce," Hamad said.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the offer to trade a partial cease-fire for a suspension of all Israeli military operations in Palestinian territories was "ludicrous" and "a media stunt."

1

2