Talk:Khaled Mashal/Third intifada

{Arab-Israeli conflict} The third intifada is the hypothetical renewed intifada of the Palestinians against Israel. Khaled Mashal, the political leader of Hamas, proposed the idea in Cairo, Egypt on 25 November 2006. Mashal threatened that if Israel did not return to its 1967 borders within six months and recognize the Palestinian government a third intifada would begin.

"We give the international community six months for real political horizons... There is a historic opportunity for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders. Our national demands... are the end of the occupation, the creation of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders without settlements, big or small... If our demands are not met, the Palestinian people will close all political files and launch a third intifada. The conflict will be open and the victory in this conflict will be ours. Palestine is willing to co-operate on... stopping missile attacks in exchange for Israel stopping its attacks on Gaza and the West Bank. With regards to a ceasefire, it should be placed in the context of a political negotiation that allows Palestinians to feel that they have a chance to regain their rights."

On 25 November, after Mashal publicly made his threat, on the same day when Mashal proposed the intifada, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and told him that Fatah, Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorist groups had agreed to a cease-fire contingent on an end to Israeli military operations and a withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Abbas spokesman, said, "There is a signed agreement between the President and Prime Minister [Ismail] Haniyeh and all the Palestinian factions to resort to the agreement of the factions in Cairo in 2005, including ceasing all the military activity from Gaza, starting from Sunday morning. The Israeli prime minister has agreed, and it is going to start tomorrow morning." The agreement does not cover the West Bank.