Hamas takes step towards recognition of Israel

Hamas bowed to the combination of an ultimatum from the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and relentless international pressure last night by committing itself for the first time to a two-state solution of the conflict with Israel.

In an important step towards the recognition of Israel sought from Hamas by the international community, the Islamic faction agreed to a deal intended to pave the way for a new coalition government which Mr Abbas hopes will bolster his standing as a potential partner for peace negotiations with Israel.

Faced with Mr Abbas's threat of a referendum next month on agreement to a two-state solution, Hamas agreed to a document based on that drawn up by a group of Fatah and Hamas prisoners which envisages a "final" settlement of the conflict with Israel. This is based on two states along the borders which existed before the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The deal, initialled by negotiators yesterday and presented later to Mr Abbas and the Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, provides for a new " national unity" government including Fatah, long committed to a two-state solution. Mr Abbas hopes the deal will start meeting the conditions set by the international community for lifting its economic blockade.

The potentially historic deal embracing all the Palestinian factions, except Islamic Jihad, was the most positive development in an otherwise deteriorating atmosphere of crisis. Israeli warplanes late last night attacked two bridges in central Gaza in the first military response to last Sunday's seizure by militants ­ including members of Hamas's military wing ­ of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19.

The Israel Defence Forces said its missiles had been launched at the main north-south road in Gaza to limit any efforts by Cpl Shalit's captors to move him north. As military aircraft flew repeatedly over Gaza City early today, the airforce attacked a power station in central Gaza with missiles in order to cut electricity to much of the northern Strip, including Gaza City.

The army said artillery rounds were also fired at open areas at the southern end of Gaza. The attacks came as police investigated claims by one of the militant factions involved in Cpl Shalit's abduction, the Palestinian Resistance Committees, that they had also seized a teenager from a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Eliyahu Asheri, 18, from the Itamar settlement, near Nablus, has been missing since Sunday.

As the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called for time to be given to a diplomatic solution, Mr Abbas urged Israel not to send the army into Gaza.

But Israeli troops were last night seen crossing the Gaza border after the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, told the Knesset: "We are preparing for a broad and forceful action drawing on all means at our disposal."

The immediate effect of yesterday's deal between the factions is likely to be internal ­ preventing the threat of a Palestinian armed civil conflict ­ rather than external. But it was praised by the EU as a positive first step. The US said it wanted to see more details of the final document. Both emphasised that they still required Hamas to make it clear that it recognises Israel and renounces violence.

The prisoners' document on which the deal is based also paves the way for Hamas to join the Palestinian Liberation Organisation whose charter ­ in stark contrast to that of Hamas ­ recognises Israel. But instead of renouncing violence, it suggests that armed resistance should be concentrated in the occupied territories rather than on the Israeli side of the 1967 green line.

Walid Awad, of Mr Abbas's office, said the President was "very pleased" by the outcome of yesterday's final negotiating meeting in Gaza. He added: "This is what the President has been working for, for a long time."

The leader of one of the smaller factions to sign the agreement, Qais Samarrai, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was the first to propose a two-state solution a generation ago, said it was "more important" than the decision of the PLO in 1988 to move towards recognition of Israel. Referring to amendments which Hamas succeeded in securing in the document, Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, declared that the document would allow Hamas to stick by its "agenda of resistance" to Israel.

He added: "The document included a clear clause referring to the non-recognition of the legitimacy of the occupation."

The gloss put on the deal by Hamas elements is likely to be seized on by Israel as evidence reinforcing the earlier dismissal of the prisoners' document by Mr Olmert because of its failure ­ among other things ­ explicitly to recognise Israel and renounce all violence.

Three months of rising tensions

* 29 March Abbas swears in Hamas government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyehr.

* 7 April US and EU suspend aid to try to force Hamas to recognise Israel's right to exist.

* 9 April Israel severs all direct contact with the government.

* 17 April Islamic Jihad bomber kills 11 people in Tel Aviv. Hamas calls it self-defence.

* 20 May Palestinian intelligence chief, an Abbas ally, hurt in assassination attempt.

* 7 June Hamas agrees to pull its militia off Gaza streets.

* 9 June Hamas calls off 16-month-old truce, blaming Israeli forces for killing 10 in Gaza.

* 10 June Abbas sets referendum on statehood proposal for 26 July. Hamas rejects it.

* 25 June Palestinian militants kill two Israeli soldiers and abduct Corporal Gilad Shalit.

* 27 June As more than 3,000 Israeli troops and armour surround Gaza, Palestinian militants begin erecting barricades.