The Islamic group Hamas has said it could limit attacks to Israeli soldiers and settlers if the Jewish state stops harming Palestinian civilians.
However, the group ruled out halting militancy in the three-year-old Palestinian revolt.
The declaration by Hamas chief spokesman Mr Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi could set terms for talks sought by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie to rein in violence to advance a US-backed "road map" envisaging peaceful statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel.
"The issue that will be possible to be addressed [with the Palestinian Authority] is continuing the resistance to the [Israeli] occupation while avoiding civilian casualties," Mr Rantissi told journalists at a Gaza Strip safe house.
"But if the enemy [Israel] does not accept then resistance will continue comprehensively," he said.
Israel insists on an anti-militant crackdown by the Palestinian Authority as required by the road map, a move rejected by Palestinian officials.
"The only way forward remains unchanged. It is adopting the road map's call for the dismantling of the vast terrorist infrastructure by the Palestinian Authority and the incarceration of terrorist operatives," said Mr Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Hamas has sworn to destroy Israel, and its suicide bombings have prompted Israeli assassination campaigns against group leaders - including Mr Rantissi, who barely survived a helicopter missile strike on his car in June.
Like most Palestinians, Hamas considers some 250,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied territories as legitimate targets, a view rejected internationally. It says only Palestinians who themselves carry out attacks should be considered combatants.
There is a growing Israeli belief that militant groups are exploiting discontent in the occupied territories, where the uprising erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled, and that the Palestinian Authority must therefore be shored up.
Israel allowed in more than 6,000 Palestinians to work on Sunday, in a tentative easing of sweeping restrictions on movement that were criticised by the army chief a few days ago.