GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Following intensive negotiations with Hamas, the de facto leadership of Gaza, a group of European parliamentarians has been told by the organization that it will accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders as well as offer Israel a long-term ceasefire.

The delegation of 11 from Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and Italy, managed to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza on Saturday morning after their boat, the Dignity, sailed from Cyprus to Gaza, shadowed part of the way by an Israeli naval vessel.

The group had originally tried to enter Gaza from Israel's Erez border crossing but was refused permission by the Israeli authorities to cross. Another attempt to enter the territory from Egypt's Rafah terminal was denied by the Egyptian authorities.

This was the third successful boat trip made by the Dignity into Palestinian coastal waters despite warnings by Israel that action would be taken to stop the vessel. On board was a ton of medical aid and desperately needed medical equipment.

Despite the threats of naval intervention, in the end Israel backed down after realizing it would have gained more bad publicity if it had detained and harassed a boatload of international politicians carrying humanitarian aid.

The aim of the visit was to protest Israel's economic embargo and closure of Gaza's borders, assess humanitarian conditions on the ground, and to hold talks with Ismail Haniya, the leader of Hamas.

Haniya was questioned about his organization's previous offer of a 20-year hudna or truce with Israel in exchange for the Israeli government recognizing the national rights of Palestinians.

British parliamentarian Clare Short, who served in the cabinet of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked the Hamas leadership to repeat the offer, which he did.

Haniya was also questioned by delegation leader Baron Nazir Ahmed, a Pakistani-born member of the House of Lords, about Hamas' relationship with Iran.

"Our ties with Iran are like those with other Muslim states. We are prepared to accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized borders of 1967. Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation," Haniya said.

At the end of the breakthrough talks, which took place in the former guesthouse of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, now occupied by Hamas, Haniya thanked his guests.

"Your visit proves that the Palestinian people are not alone in their struggle against the blockade and that many of the people of the free and cultured world support us," Haniya told his visitors.

The de-facto Gaza leader then proceed to explain Hamas' reasons for boycotting the unity talks with Fatah, a group associated with the PA, which were meant to take place this week in Cairo.

Haniya stated that while Hamas had recently released all Fatah prisoners in Gaza, the PA leadership had failed to reciprocate in kind and that currently the PA was holding 400 Hamas men in its prisons in the West Bank.

He further accused U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her recent visit to the Palestinian West Bank, of pressuring the PA into not reaching an agreement with his Islamic resistance movement and further splitting attempts at reconciliation.

Rice's recent lackluster visit to Ramallah and the northern West Bank town of Jenin was fairly low-key and her statement that the Annapolis peace process had not failed was met with disbelief by most Palestinians.

She further stated that peace between Palestinians and Israelis was not that far away. This was in stark contrast to recent comments from the George W. Bush administration itself, acknowledging that the attempt to reach a deal before the end of the president's term in office at the end of the year was unrealistic.

"While we may not yet be at the finish line, I am quite certain that if Palestinians and Israelis stay on the Annapolis course, they are going to cross that finish line and can do so relatively soon," she added somewhat unconvincingly.

However, both Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have called on Rice to continue the negotiations, despite the lack of progress.

In the interim the shaky ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was broken at the beginning of last week by an Israeli cross-border raid into the southern Gaza Strip.

During the raid, which the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stated was to destroy a tunnel supposedly to smuggle captured IDF soldiers, six Islamic Jihad fighters were killed.

Several resistance organizations, including Islamic Jihad, responded by launching a salvo of rockets into Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, causing no damage and no casualties.

Another Palestinian fighter was killed shortly thereafter when the IDF targeted one of the rocket launching squads.

Islamic Jihad said it would halt rocket fire if Israel, by the same token, ceased its military aggression. If not, however, the organization reiterated its right to respond in kind to any attacks by the Israelis.