Hamas Offers New Truce With Israel
But Says Israel Must Stop 'Aggression;' Israel Had Threatened Haniyeh
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Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh talks to the press June 14, 2006, during a visit to the home of the family killed while on a picnic on the beach. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
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Palestinian civil servants disrupt a session of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramallah, June 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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Israel Prime Minster Ehud Olmert speaks to British Jewish community leaders in London, June 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
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Hamas lawmaker Hamed el-Betawi, lower right, looks on as security scuffles with Palestinian civil servants who interrupted a parliament session, June 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
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Photo Essay Historic Vote Palestinians vote in their first parliamentary election in a decade.
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Interactive Shaping Israel Israelis vote in an election labeled as a referendum on the country's future in the West Bank
The Islamic Jihad militant group, which has never accepted the truce, fired five rockets toward Israel on Thursday.
Hamas, which opposes the existence of Israel, has killed hundreds of Israelis in 4½ years of violence.
Palestinian officials said Information Minister Yousef Rizka turned over $2 million to the Finance Ministry.
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar arrived with $20 million on Wednesday. That money also was transferred to the Finance Ministry.
Western donors and Israel have cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of financial transfers to the Palestinians since Hamas won legislative elections earlier this year. They want Hamas to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
Hamas has refused the demands, despite being unable to pay the salaries to virtually all of the government's civil servants for the past three months. Instead, it has turned to Arab and Muslim countries for help.
Hamas officials said the money Zahar brought came from "donations" but did not provide a source. Zahar had been to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.
Rizka was returning from a trip to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Dozens of Palestinian civil servants stormed a parliamentary session on Wednesday to demand long-overdue salaries, attacking Hamas lawmakers and forcing the parliament speaker to flee the building. No injuries were reported.
Officials have said they expect the money to go to workers' salaries. Observers believe the money will be used to finance Hamas private militias and not salaries, reports Berger.
Olmert wraps up two days of talks with French leaders Thursday, leaving with mutual declarations of affection but no endorsement for his plan to set Israel's borders with the Palestinians unilaterally if peace talks stay stalled.
Olmert makes similar entreaties for emigration to Jewish communities in other countries, but the subject is particularly sensitive in France, where fears of anti-Semitism resurfaced this year after the kidnapping and brutal killing of a young Jewish man.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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