By Xinhua,
Gaza : Hamas delegation will return to Gaza on Thursday after talks with Egyptian officials about a proposal for a ceasefire with Israel.
Ismail Radwan, a spokesman for Hamas, said the delegation will hold internal talks with Hamas leaders after it returns from Cairo” before briefing the Palestinian people on the results of lull talks.”
The delegation was intended to get Israel’s response to the Egyptian-brokered truce which is expected to last for six months in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
A Hamas website reported Wednesday that the talks hit a deadlock because Israel said it merely accept “a lull for lull” without lifting the blockade it imposed on Gaza since Hamas took over the territory in June.
But Radwan said that “the return of the delegation doesn’t mean the (ceasefire) talks have ended.”
To make a full ceasefire, Israel demands the release of its soldier, Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas has hold hostage in Gaza since June 2006. Hamas rejects the linkage between Shalit’s issue and the ceasefire.
Egypt offered the ceasefire after Israel increased its military operations in the Gaza Strip and tightened the siege on the impoverished strip.