SHARM EL-SHEIKH: An EU mission seeking to broker an end to Israel’s Gaza onslaught held talks with President Hosni Mubarak on Monday ahead of a similar visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Talks with Mubarak were about the situation in Gaza, the means of reaching an immediate ceasefire, a reopening of crossing points and a return to the truce, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists.
Hamas on Monday said it would also send a delegation to Egypt, the first such contact with key regional mediator Cairo since fighting began 10 days ago.
Egypt brokered a previous six-month truce which ended on Dec. 19, heralding the latest violence in which more than 500 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed.
The EU mission headed by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the European bloc’s rotating presidency, as well as his French and Swedish counterparts met with Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Aboul Gheit said the talks also touched on getting the UN Security Council to pass a resolution for achieving a ceasefire. Discussions at the world body on Saturday failed to reach agreement on a text calling for an end to hostilities.
“Our mission is essentially aimed at lessening the Palestinian suffering and supplying humanitarian aid to the Gaza population which requires visits on the ground, Schwarzenberg said.
After Egypt, the European foreign ministers are to head to Jerusalem, Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and Amman, along with EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Solana told journalists that the EU was “working for a rapid ceasefire … the faster the better.
The Sharm talks came as Hamas said it was sending a delegation to Egypt for talks on the war in Gaza, the first such contact since fighting began.
“We have received an invitation from Egypt and we’re going to Cairo to listen to Egyptian officials and discuss with them suspended issues, notably the (permanent) reopening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Beirut-based Hamas official Ossama Hemdan told AFP.
“We want an immediate end to Israeli aggression and the lifting of the blockade and we will listen to Egyptian proposals on the subject, he added.
Hamas, which has controlled the strip since June 2007, has said it would be open to a ceasefire with Israel if the Jewish state would lift its blockade on Gaza and open the crossings into the densely populated, impoverished coastal strip.
Mubarak last week said he would not reopen Rafah because he did not want to officialize the rift between the Palestinian Authority (PA) of President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.
Under a 2005 deal, the Rafah crossing can only be opened to normal traffic if European Union observers and PA forces are at the border, which is also monitored by Israel.
Egypt has opened Rafah to limited amounts of aid going into Gaza and wounded Palestinians leaving since Israel began its onslaught.
The crossing has otherwise remained closed, with Israeli war planes bombing the border area which is criss-crossed by smuggling tunnels into Gaza.
Israel, which has headed off UN efforts at brokering a ceasefire thanks to its key ally the United States, said on Monday that its offensive was ongoing.
“We have hit Hamas hard, but we have not yet reached all the goals that we have set for ourselves and the operation continues, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said. -AFP
