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Palestinians agree to weeklong cease-fire

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-18 21:50

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed Sunday to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel, after three weeks of violence that Palestinian medics say has killed more than 1,000 people and turned Gaza's streets into battlegrounds.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, right, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, front left, attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009. Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed Sunday to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel, after three weeks of violence that Palestinian medics say has killed more than 1,000 people and turned Gaza's streets into battlegrounds. [Agencies]

Sunday's announcement came about 12 hours after Israel declared its own unilateral ceasefire.

Related readings:  Israel ceases fire but troops stay in Gaza  Israel declares unilateral Gaza ceasefire  Medical sources: Death toll in Gaza exceeds 1,200  Egypt demands immediate cease-fire in Gaza

Hamas' Syrian-based deputy leader, speaking for the militant Palestinian factions, said on Syrian television that the cease-fire will give Israel time to withdraw and open all the border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

An Israeli security chief told Cabinet ministers the military operation "is not over" and that the next few days would be critical to determining whether it would be relaunched.

The military said no one was injured by more than a dozen militant rockets that struck southern Israel ahead of the announcement from deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk on Syrian television.

"We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," Abou Marzouk said.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev would not say what level of violence would provoke Israel to call off the cease-fire.

"Israel's decision allows it to respond and renew fire at our enemies, the different terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, as long as they continue attacking," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the start of the weekly Cabinet session.

"This morning some of them continued their fire, provoking what we had warned of," Olmert said. "This cease-fire is fragile and we must examine it minute by minute, hour by hour."

In Gaza, people loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and began venturing back to their homes to see what was left standing after the punishing air and ground assault the tiny seaside territory endured. Bulldozers began shoving aside rubble in Gaza City, the territory's biggest population center, to clear a path for cars while medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they discovered 75 bodies.