Hamas refuses to join ceasefire

Scattered reports of gun fire in the West Bank and demonstrators in the Gaza Strip calling for the intefadeh to continue testified today to the fragility of a ceasefire called by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Though Islamic militant groups have yet to clearly say whether they will cooperate - and terror group Hamas denied earlier reports they had joined the truce - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said a reduction of Palestinian violence in recent days shows a convincing ceasefire had begun.

‘‘You can congratulate us on the beginning, but not on the completion,’’ Peres said. Israel demands eight weeks of quiet before peace negotiations can be resumed while the Palestinians want only four weeks, Peres told Army radio.

Despite efforts to calm tempers, several Palestinians were injured in exchanges of fire in Hebron and Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians marked the 34th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war with a march of about 2,000 people from national and Islamic factions.

Demonstrators chanted ‘‘The intefadeh will continue until victory!’’ and carried posters of Arafat and Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Arafat called a meeting of his Fatah leadership and Hamas representatives on Monday night.

A joint statement said they would halt attacks in Israel as of midnight to give Israel a chance to ‘‘stop assassination and stop killing and destruction.’’

‘‘We are going to stop our military actions in our lands,’’ read the leaflet released in the names of the military wings of Hamas and Fatah.

But later the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said the group is not bound by the ceasefire.

‘‘When we are talking about the so called ceasefire, this means between two armies. We are not an army. We are people who defend themselves and work against the aggression,’’ he said.

Hamas support for the ceasefire Arafat is seen as vital to its success. The militant Islamic group said the suicide bomber who blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv disco on Friday night, killing 20 young Israelis, was a Hamas member. Hamas has claimed many bomb attacks against Israel.

Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, did not take part in last night’s meeting, and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, formally part of the PLO but opposed to peace with Israel, issued conflicting statements.

Nafez Azam, spokesman of the Islamic Jihad, suggested the group would give a ceasefire a chance.