CAIRO: A Hamas team met Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Sunday in a bid to clinch a lasting truce in war-battered Gaza, after an Israeli negotiator held similar talks in Cairo.
Egypt’s state MENA news agency said Suleiman and the Hamas officials discussed “Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a (permanent) truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue.
Hamas and Egyptian officials were not immediately available to comment on the behind closed doors talks, attended by members of the group’s powerful Syria-based politburo and a delegation from the Gaza Strip.
But a Hamas spokesman in Damascus reiterated to AFP that the group was willing to observe a “one-year truce with Israel “on condition that the blockade of Gaza is lifted.
MENA earlier quoted an Egyptian official saying that Cairo hopes to clinch a “lasting ceasefire agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians and “to succeed in narrowing the differences between the two sides.
Suleiman, Egypt’s pointman for Palestinian-Israeli affairs, met separately on several occasions with Hamas and Israeli officials during the 22-day assault as he sought acceptance of an Egyptian plan to end the onslaught.
On Thursday he met Israeli negotiator Amos Gilad.
As the Cairo talks got under way the Hamas representative in Lebanon vowed that the group will continue to arm its members.
“Warplanes, aircraft carriers and satellite technology will not be able to monitor the entry of weapons through Gaza’s tunnels, Ossama Hamdan told a rally in Beirut.
“Things might get difficult, but we will do whatever it takes to continue our resistance against Israel.
Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 with the stated aim of halting rocket attacks from Gaza and to stop arms trafficking from Egypt. It has warned it will strike again if Hamas is allowed to rearm.
Hamas has also threatened to resume fighting if Israel does not reopen the crossings into Gaza, where 1,330 Palestinians were killed during the onslaught, almost a third of them children. Thirteen Israelis were also killed.
On January 6, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak proposed terms for a ceasefire that would include an end to smuggling through a network of tunnels linking Egypt and Gaza at the Rafah border.
Egypt insists that only contraband goods are trafficked through the tunnels while weapons are delivered to Gaza by sea. But Israel believes otherwise.
“Israel considers that Egypt is in a position to confront the matter of arms smuggling and to put an end to it, Gilad said on Saturday.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak travels to Washington on Tuesday to discuss implementing a January 16 bilateral agreement to halt arms trafficking.
The European Union is also looking at ways to stem the flow. The issue is due to be discussed on Sunday in Brussels by EU foreign ministers and their Arab counterparts including Egypt.
France said on Friday it has sent a frigate with a helicopter to monitor international waters off Gaza with Egyptian and Israeli cooperation.
The Hamas delegation includes Imad Al-Alami and Mohammed Nasser, members of the Damascus-based politburo, and Gaza representatives Ayman Taha, Salah Bardawil and Jamal Abu Hashem, MENA said.
Egypt is also seeking to end a protracted feud between Hamas and the Fatah faction of secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which sharpened after Hamas seized control of Gaza in deadly street fighting in June 2007.
MENA said several Palestinian faction leaders are due in Cairo this week, including veteran Nayef Hawatmeh of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for reconciliation talks.
