Gaza truce deal to end Israel blockade

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. (4:00 a.m. British time) 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 sceptically 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.