10-Day Truce Proposed in Talks With Hamas, Israel

Egypt and Hamas are close to a deal for a 10-day cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in Gaza, where the death toll from the Israeli offensive exceeded 1,000, officials said Wednesday.

Lebanese army soldiers look at a rocket which fell short in Lebanon several kilometers north of the...

Lebanese army soldiers look at a rocket which fell short in Lebanon several kilometers north of the Israeli border, near the village of el-Meri, south of Lebanon, on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Israeli forces fired artillery north into Lebanon in response to a rocket attack, the second such border exchange in days which threatened to ignite a second front as Israel battled Hamas in Gaza. There were no reports of casualties on the Lebanese side, according to U.N. peacekeepers. No one was hurt after three rockets fell in open areas near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, but residents were ordered into bomb shelters, Israeli police said.

(Lutfallah Daher/AP Photo)
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Egyptian and Hamas officials expressed optimism that an agreement for a temporary halt in fighting could be sealed soon and presented to Israel. But even if all sides sign on, further talks will be needed to resolve contentious disputes over policing Gaza's borders and ensure a longer-term truce.

"We're working with Hamas and we're working with the Israeli side. We hope to reach an outcome soon," Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Nine Israeli human rights groups accused the army of endangering Gazan civilians and called for a war crimes investigation. The groups wrote to Israeli leaders that the Gaza campaign has left civilians with nowhere to flee. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel supports freedom of expression, even if an opinion "is not based on any solid evidence and even if it is tainted with political bias."

Guerrillas in Lebanon sent rockets crashing into northern Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week, drawing an Israeli artillery barrage and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second front.

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Egyptian and Hamas officials held intensive talks in Cairo. Late Wednesday, Salah al-Bardawil, a Gaza-based Hamas official, stopped short of saying Hamas had accepted the Egyptian proposal. He told reporters that "we submitted our points of view" on the proposed deal, adding, "We hope that this Egyptian effort will succeed."

Ghazi Hamad, another Gaza-based Hamas official, told the BBC, "I am optimistic now because I think there is no other choice for us. ... This kind of agreement can be done now, and I think now there is good progress in Egypt. We hope that now Egypt will contact Israel and talk about all issues."

But there were signs Hamas' leadership-in-exile had reservations. Osama Hamdan, a leading Hamas official in Beirut, said there were still points Hamas had not agreed to. "We do not agree with the initiative as it stands now," he told Al-Jazeera TV.

The contradictory comments were the latest sign of cracks between Hamas leaders under fire in Gaza and the leadership-in-exile, which is largely based in Syria and is seen as more hard-line. Hamas officials, however, insist that the movement is unified, and it was not clear if Hamdan's tougher tone was a negotiating tactic or a sign of division.

Israel launched its offensive Dec. 27 to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks. It has said it will press forward until Hamas halts the rocket fire and receives guarantees that Hamas will stop smuggling weapons into Gaza through the porous Egyptian border.