Israel on Friday welcomed a calm declared by Palestinian groups and promised to hold its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority eventually dismantle these groups.
Israel's vice premier, Ehud Olmert, said Friday that Israel would refrain from military offensives to help make the shaky calm a success. He noted that Israel has already released some prisoners, and plans to release more, though authorities have said they would not release all inmates.
"Is it enough? Of course not," he told Israel Army Radio in response to the Palestinian declaration. "Is the significance here that the Palestinian Authority is carrying out a war on terrorism? Definitely not. But they are certainly making an effort.
"We are interested that terrorism completely stop, and every step on the road to ending terrorism is positive from our perspective," Olmert said.
On his part, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said said the agreement by Palestinian factions is "serious" and paves the way for progress in the peace process.
"The Palestinian agreement is important and serious and it will ... give the peace process a chance to move forward," Abbas was quoted as saying by the Jordanian Al Rai newspaper.
Abbas said he expected Israel to follow its pullback from the West Bank town of Jericho with a redeployment from Tulkarem further north over the next two days.
