Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel had no public response on Wednesday to reports that 12 Palestinian factions have agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Egypt, considered a strong U.S. ally, has been trying to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, but Hamas said it would not agree to such a deal unless all the other Palestinian factions came on board.

Twelve Palestinian political and military factions agreed to a truce with Israel, the Bethlehem based Maan News Agency reported on Wednesday -- provided that it is bilateral and applies to both the Gaza Strip and West Bank and includes lifting the siege on Gaza.

According to reports, those factions include two of the most active terror groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office and the Foreign Ministry declined comment on the report.

But Olmert said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Israel would "have no truce with these despicable terrorists" and would continue its "struggle against them until quiet and security are achieved for the residents of Israel."

Olmert said as long as the fighting against Israel continues, Israel would need to defend itself.

Israel generally opposes the idea of a truce with Hamas because it says that the terrorist organization will use the time and relative quiet to rearm and rebuild its forces.

Hamas needs this break in order to resuscitate itself, Jonathan Fighel from the International Policy Institute on Counter-Terrorism told Cybercast News Service.

So far Hamas has delivered only destruction, pain and a siege to the people. "They need (a break) desperately, more than the Israeli side."

Hamas leaders have said as much.

Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said in an interview with al-Jazeera television that the Egyptian-proposed truce was a "tactic" in the struggle against Israel.

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, threatened in a speech on Tuesday to unleash 200,000 people willing to blow themselves up if Israel doesn't agree to the ceasefire.

"If Israel says no, it will pay a heavy price," Zahar said. "We are a besieged people and we will have to use all our tools to defend ourselves against Israel."

Zahar said that no one could deny that Hamas had benefited from an earlier truce with Israel in 2005. "Even those who opposed the previous truce have admitted that it was useful," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of Israeli military intelligence told lawmakers on Tuesday that Hamas is planning to carry out a huge terror attack as Israel celebrates its 60th Independence Day next week.

According to intelligence information, the attack may target a crossing point into the Gaza Strip, similar to one that happened just before the Passover holiday began a few weeks ago. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were wounded when Hamas terrorists exploded two car bombs, launched a mortar shells and fired heavy weapons.

Hamas may even try to breach the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel as it breached the border with Egypt in January Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin was quoted as saying.

Since Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Hamas has taken advantage of the absence of Israeli soldiers along the Gaza-Egyptian border to smuggle tons of weapons, ammunition and explosives into the Gaza Strip, Israel says.

It also has built its forces into a virtual army by sending its fighters for training in Iran and elsewhere, a Hamas official admitted recently.

Israel, with U.S. and international backing, closed the borders with the Gaza Strip after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas last June.

Israel further clamped down on movement in and out of the Strip in January in an effort to stop the rocket fire at southern Israeli communities.