The road map peace plan received a double boost yesterday with the announcement by the radical Hamas movement that it had agreed to suspend attacks on Israelis and the completion of a deal, in principle, for the pull back of Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, to begin possibly as early as Monday.
The Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, declared in Gaza that the Islamic group had agreed to a truce, but would not say when a formal combined announcement would be made by all the Palestinian factions. He also did not outline the conditions of the truce.
"Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce or a suspension of fighting activities," Sheikh Yassin said. "We are still in contact with the rest of the factions in order to reach a joint formula to be signed by everybody," he added.
The two other main groups involved in ceasefire talks with the Palestinian Authority are Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is associated with Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah party.
A formal declaration on the cessation of attacks is likely by tomorrow and is expected to be for three months.
There was no immediate official reaction from Israel, with news of the Hamas announcement coming as Jews ushered in the Sabbath.
But a senior government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, reacted sceptically to the announcement, saying that any truce agreement signed by Hamas "is not worth the paper it's written on".
Israeli leaders fear that armed groups like Hamas will use a temporary ceasefire to reorganise and to plan a new wave of attacks.
In his discussions with the US National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, who is in the region over the weekend, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, is expected to ask for American guarantees that the Palestinian Authority will not be satisfied with a truce but will move to disarm militias, as the road map requires.
The Palestinians had not wanted to accept security control in Gaza until a truce agreement had been reached. The fact that it is now imminent is what appears to have led to a breakthrough in talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials over a withdrawal of Israeli troops and the transfer of security in large parts of the Strip to the Palestinians.
The road map stipulates that Israeli forces must withdraw to positions it held in September 2000, on the eve of the intifada.
The agreement on the Israeli pull back was sealed at a meeting in Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon between a senior Israeli military official, Maj Gen Amos Gilad, and the Palestinian minister in charge of security affairs, Mr Mohammed Dahlan. Also present was US envoy Mr John Wolf, who is in the region to oversee implementation of the road map.
Under the agreement, Israel will refrain from launching raids inside Gaza and the Palestinians will curb armed groups. The main north-south road in Gaza will be reopened to Palestinian vehicles and will remain open 24 hours a day. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinian goods will also be eased.
Israeli and Palestinian security officials plan to meet tomorrow at the Erez crossing into Gaza to discuss implementation of the agreement.
The Hamas announcement and the Gaza deal came despite continued violence on the ground. Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed during a raid by the Israeli army early yesterday morning in the Gaza Strip.
The four Palestinians - three militants and a civilian - were killed after the army moved into Gaza City in a hunt for militants who it said were planning an attack.