(Adds Israeli reaction) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Palestinian militant groups offered to stop firing rockets into Israel in exchange for a cessation of all attacks on the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, an official said on Thursday. But an Israeli government official swiftly rejected the offer, demanding that militants lay down their weapons first. Khader Habib, a leader of the Islamic Jihad, said the main Palestinian factions including the governing Hamas, President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah and other smaller groups reached the understanding while meeting Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "For the good of the national Palestinian interest ... there is a position supporting calm (a ceasefire) by stopping rocket fire in return for an end to the aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank," Habib told Reuters. Habib said a deal would only take effect after Israel agrees and actually ends military actions. The offer was limited only to rocket firing and did not include other forms of attacks by militants such as cross-border attacks and suicide bombings. It was the first time that all Palestinian factions and militant groups had agreed on a common proposal. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin responded to the proposal by saying that the Jewish state would only stop its actions after militants laid down their weapons. "Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups have chosen to fire rockets into Israel day in and day out. Israel will continue to defend its citizens against the rockets and will only stop its actions once those who fire, store and make the rockets and those who smuggle in their components cease their actions," Eisin said. Habib said that Haniyeh would take the groups' proposal to Abbas in their meeting later on Thursday in the hope that the president would then put it to Israel. "If the Israelis agree then the deal will be ratified by all parties. The implementation of the agreement will be pending on whether we will see an end to the aggression on the ground," Habib said. On Wednesday, the Israeli government decided to press on with a five-month-old offensive launched after militants seized a soldier in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip last June. It stopped short of a massive assault to curb an upsurge in Palestinian militant rocket strikes on the Jewish state. Israel has killed nearly 400 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, since it began the offensive, hospital officials and residents say. Three soldiers have been killed. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem)
