A relative of a Palestinian fighter mourns during his funeral in Gaza City, Sunday. (AP) GAZA CITY: Hamas is willing to commit to a truce with Israel if the Jewish state stops attacks on the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday. “The ball is in the court of the occupation,” Abu Zuhri said. “Our message to the occupation is that a truce will be met with a truce.” A senior member of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement also made a rare appeal to the Israeli public to halt escalating cross-border fighting, telling an Israeli radio station in fluent Hebrew that Hamas was ready to stop its rocket fire if Israel ends its attacks on Gaza. With fighting continuing early Sunday, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas' Deputy Foreign Minister, delivered the message to state-run Israel Radio. “We are interested in calm but want the Israeli military to stop its operations,” Hamad said in Hebrew. Hamad and Abu Zuhri's comments came after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would consider a ceasefire if Gaza's fighters halted a barrage of rockets directed at the Jewish state. “If they cease firing we'll cease firing,” he said. “We cannot tolerate firing” against Israel and “we will act along the lines of what happens on the ground,” Barak added. It was the first time that an Israeli minister had envisaged a ceasefire since deadly clashes with the Palestinians broke out following an anti-tank attack on an Israeli school bus Thursday. The attack was followed by a string of retaliatory Israeli air raids and dozens of rockets fired by Palestinian groups into southern Israel. At least 18 Palestinians have been killed in the confrontation, the deadliest since Israel's 2008-'09 war on the coastal enclave. Abu Zuhri said Sunday that Hamas was not trying to increase tensions with Israel, but defended its actions. “We are not interested in escalation and the Palestinian factions are defending themselves and the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli escalation,” he said. Barak said earlier Hamas had already been hit hard and a ceasefire might be the way to go. The fighting since Hamas fighters fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli school bus has stoked fears of a larger escalation that could include an Israeli incursion in Gaza reminiscent of the war in 2008. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would raise the stakes if cross-border attacks continued. “Our policy is clear, if the attacks continue on Israel's citizens and soldiers, the response will be much harsher,” Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting.
