Gaza truce deal to end Israel blockade: Meshaal

By Lin Noueihed and Ahmed Jadallah

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - An Egyptian-brokered truce commits Israel to ending its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip but any Israeli violation of the deal would not go unanswered, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday.

Egypt and Hamas announced earlier on Tuesday that a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militants in the coastal territory will begin on Thursday at 6 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT Wednesday) and Meshaal billed it as the first bilateral truce deal.

But Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak sounded a more cautious tone and the Jewish state has said it would continue preparing for possible large-scale military action should a truce fall apart.

Casting further doubt on whether any halt to hostilities would last, Washington reacted skeptically to news that a ceasefire had even been agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group, which is shunned by Washington.

Meshaal said a lasting truce would be good for 1.5 million Palestinians who have suffered from an Israeli blockade and come as a relief for Israel if it also commits.

"If you go back, we go back. The resistance factions are not in a weak position, they are in a strong position... We are a people with a cause and we will not be broken by aggression or invasion," Meshaal told Reuters during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.

"We will deal with the position on the ground as necessary."

The announcement came on a day when Israel launched air strikes that killed six militants in Gaza. A ceasefire would aim to end rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel from the coastal enclave and Israeli raids and air strikes in the territory.

PRISONER SWAP

Damascus-based Meshaal said that the truce deal made no mention of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, or opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Israel had said Rafah would not reopen unless there was progress on Shalit's release.

"The enemy tried...to merge the issue of Gilad Shalit with the truce. We rejected this and in the final Egyptian offer the two issues are not linked," he said.

"The Gilad Shalit issue is linked to an exchange deal ... whereas the truce involves a bilateral ceasefire, lifting the blockade and opening the crossings."

Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier that under any truce, the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized the area 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.