Gaza militants back Israel-Hamas truce: Hamas leader

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip will back an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel set to take effect on Thursday morning, a Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, said on Tuesday.

Zahar said the truce would come into effect on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT Wednesday) and the agreement would result in Israel easing a blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory in exchange for militants halting cross-border rocket attacks into Israel.

"We as Palestinian people, as Palestinian factions agreed upon a bilateral, immediate ceasefire between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side," Zahar told reporters in Gaza City.

He said the ceasefire agreement was for a six-month period.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier that under any truce accord, the blockade Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip after Hamas seized the territory a year ago from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction would be eased gradually and partially.

Israel has allowed in humanitarian aid but has cut back on the supply of non-essential goods, such as construction materials, as well as fuel, saying Gazans could not expect to lead normal lives while Israelis were under rocket attack.

Israel's Defense Ministry said one of its senior officials, Amos Gilad, would fly to Cairo later on Tuesday to be updated on the progress of the truce negotiations.

Zahar confirmed at the news conference that Egypt would invite envoys of Hamas, Fatah and the European Union to discuss arrangements for reopening the Rafah border crossing two weeks after the truce goes into effect.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Ori Lewis and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)