A senior official of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced Tuesday that Hamas will positively respond to a deal of honor on the legislative election.

"Hamas will not sign on the agreement before it studies it. We will study it and then we will positively deal with it," said Saed Seyam.

"The reason why we did not attend the signing ceremony is that there were leaders who were detained by Israel and contact with them was over," he said.

Israel arrested more than 500 Hamas officials and members in the West Bank, Seyam said, adding that some of them were working on the draft of the deal.

He said that Hamas leaders were surprised that there were just 24 hours for the signing of the deal.

"An employee in the Central Election Committee brought the deal and asked leaders of factions to sign on it," Seyam said.

Leaders of 12 Palestinian factions signed the deal in the West Bank city of Ramallah Monday night, while Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) boycotted the signing ceremony.

Under the deal, all parties concerned should respect results of the legislative election and prohibit use of arms during the election.

Source: Xinhua