CAIRO: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Sunday it was unlikely that a truce with Israel in and around the Gaza Strip would be renewed when it expires next week.
His comments, given in a Hamas statement, came as Israeli and Egyptian officials met in Cairo on renewing the six-month truce which was agreed under Egyptian mediation in June.
Top Israeli defense ministry official Amos Gilad was in Cairo to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on the truce, which was hammered out in June through Egyptian mediation and runs out on Thursday.
An Israeli defense official had told AFP on Saturday that the government was prepared to renew the truce with Hamas.
If Hamas is ready to maintain the calm and return to the situation as it was three weeks ago, Israel will be willing to continue the truce, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The ceasefire agreement has been rattled since Nov. 4 by a string of tit-for-tat attacks between the Israeli army and fighters, who have fired dozens of rockets against southern Israel.
Talks about renewing the ceasefire come amid calls in Israel for a major offensive against Gaza and after Israel s interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told security chiefs to make plans for military action.
Israel said its border crossings into the impoverished coastal strip would remain closed on Sunday after Palestinian militants launched mortar rounds into southern Israel, causing no casualties or damage.
Last week, Israel allowed dozens of trucks filled with humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip, where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on outside aid.
The head of the Hamas administration in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, was expected to set out the group s position on the truce at a rally marking its 21st anniversary on Sunday.
The Islamists accuse Israel of failing to honor its side of the bargain by easing its crippling blockade of Gaza, while Israel accuses Hamas – which it boycotts as a terror group – of failing to stop militant rocket attacks.
There is no sense in extending the truce while the enemy is not respecting it and is keeping Gaza in a state of siege, said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum, without saying whether the Islamists intended to declare it over.
Gilad, who also led the Israeli side in the negotiations for the original June 19 truce, has repeatedly spoken out in favor of extending the deal.
Experience shows that military operations don t always solve problems in the Middle East, he said late last month. You have to find the optimal solution. To date no appropriate military solution has been found for the Strip.
