Following
is the English translation of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad statement concerning
the conditions for truce.
"Out
of our desire for the unity of our Palestinian ranks at this dangerous phase
which our people and our cause are going through, and in order to protect our
national unity achieved by the Intifada and the resistance and documented by the
blood of the martyrs, and as the contribution from us to consolidating
Palestinian national dialogue on the basis of adherence to the rights of our
people, and in order to protect our internal front from the danger of schism and
confrontation, and in order to block the enemy from having any excuse to wreck
it, and in an assertion of the legitimate right to resist the occupation as a
strategic choice until the end of the Zionist occupation of our land and until
we achieve all our national rights, and in response to efforts by many in the
Palestinian and Arab arena who care about the unity of the Palestinian national
ranks, we declare the following initiative:
"A.
Suspension of the military operations against the Zionist enemy for three
months, effective today, in return for the following conditions:
"1.
An immediate cessation of all forms of Zionist aggression against our
Palestinian people including incursions, destruction, closures and sieges on
cities, villages and refugee camps, including the siege imposed on President
Yasser Arafat, house demolitions, leveling of agricultural land and assaults
against land, property and Christian and Islamic holy sites, especially the holy
Al Aqsa Mosque. In addition, the immediate cessation of all individual
assassination operations, massacres, collective measures, all arrests and
deportations against our people, leaders, cadres and fighters.
"2.
The release of all prisoners and detainees, Palestinian and Arab, from
occupation prisons without condition or restriction and the return to their
homes first and foremost of those who have spent long periods and those with
lengthy sentences, women, children, the sick and elderly.
"B.
In the event that the enemy does not act according to these conditions and
commitments, or violates any of them, we see ourselves unencumbered by this
initiative and we hold the enemy responsible for the consequences."