The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas does not
call for stopping the flow of weapons into the Gaza Strip, a top Hamas leader
announced Saturday.
Ezat Risheq, member of the Hamas "political bureau,"
said that reports claiming that the agreement calls for an end to the smuggling
of weapons were untrue.
Risheq was commenting on reports that claimed that
special US army units would be deployed along the border between the Gaza Strip
and Egypt to stop the flow of weapons to Hamas and other armed Palestinian
groups.
The Hamas official claimed that Israel was behind the reports "to
cover up for its defeat."
In a related development, Ziad Nakhalah, deputy head
of Islamic Jihad, told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that the cease-fire
agreement was "temporary and partial."
He said that Islamic Jihad would not be
able to live with the agreement for ever "as if matters were normal."
The
agreement, Nakhalah explained, "is part of our struggle with Israel because it
is the aggressor.
Israel has assaulted our lands and holy sites and people in
Gaza, the West Bank and the territories of 1948."
He said that Islamic Jihad
would never lay down its arms. "The cease-fire must be mutual," he added.
"According to the agreement, Israel must end the blockade and facilitate the
movement of Palestinians in the sea and on the land. If this is not implemented,
we will return to the previous situation."