Hamas officials: We will honor truce in West Bank too

[Scurrilous]

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"Although the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel does not include the West Bank at this stage, Hamas officials said Thursday they have instructed their supporters there to act as if it does.

"Hamas will abide by the tahadiyeh in the West Bank as long as Israel refrains from targeting our members there," said a top Hamas official in Gaza City. He pointed out that in recent months Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces had arrested more Hamas members in the West Bank than the IDF.

Asked if Hamas would violate the cease-fire agreement if Israel targeted its members in the West Bank, the official said his movement "maintains the right to respond to any Israeli breach."

Under the terms of the Egyptian-brokered agreement, Hamas officials said, the cease-fire will be formally extended to the West Bank in four to six months.

Abbas, on a visit to Yemen on Thursday, was quoted as saying he welcomed the Gaza cease-fire and was now open to the formation of a national unity government with Hamas.

Earlier this week, Fatah officials announced that Abbas would soon visit Gaza for the first time since Hamas's violent takeover of the territory in June 2007, and that a reconciliation between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction was under way."

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