DOHA - Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said on Saturday his movement was awaiting an official Israeli response to the offer of a truce in the Gaza Strip, even though Israel has already poured cold water on it.
Hamas 'has requested from the Egyptian delegation a paper with the pledges that the Israeli occupation agrees upon in order to calm the situation,' Meshaal told a news conference the Qatari capital, Doha.
'Based on this paper, Hamas will decide whether to accept or refuse the easing of the situation that Egypt is trying to achieve between the Palestinians and the Israelis.'
The Hamas supremo insisted that the truce offer was an Egyptian product and that Hamas agreed to go along with it only if Israel answered certain demands.
'(Hamas) did not initiate the offer to calm the situation,' he said.
On Friday, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev dismissed as 'not serious' a Hamas proposal for a six-month truce in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip
'Unfortunately, this appears not to be serious at all,' he said.
A day earlier, senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar had said in Cairo that the Islamist movement had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza first, which could be extended to the West Bank within six months.
Zahar, speaking after talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said the move must be 'reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive' and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.
Israel responded by saying it would only stop military raids on Gaza after Hamas gives up 'terrorism' and after militants in the territory stop attacking the Jewish state and smuggling in weapons from Egypt.
Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.
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