Abbas expects Gaza truce within days
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas expects Israel and Hamas to reach a truce in and around the Gaza Strip within days, his spokesman said yesterday.
"President Abbas today and yesterday had a series of telphone conversations with the Egyptian leadership to support Egypt's efforts for a truce," spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
"During the talks, he expressed hope a truce agreement would be reached in the next days," he added.
Abbas asked Israel to reopen border crossings with the impoverished territory as part of a truce agreement, the spokesman said.
A delegation from Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza, was to give its final response to a ceasefire proposal to Egyptian mediators on Monday, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
On Sunday, Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who heads the mediation efforts briefed the Islamists on Israel's response to the proposals.
Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation was to give the Palestinian Islamist movement's final response to a ceasefire proposal for Gaza to Egyptian mediators on Monday, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
The delegation heard Israel's response to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal on Sunday via Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is also in charge of mediation efforts to break the cycle of violence in the impoverished territory.
"A second session of talks between Egyptian officials and the Hamas delegation will be held on Monday to know the movement's definitive position, taking into account the Israeli response," MENA said.
The Hamas delegation, whose members travelled to Cairo from the Gaza Strip and Syria, informed exiled leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus of their talks' progress overnight on Sunday, it said.
Violence in Gaza, where Hamas seized control from Palestinian rivals Fatah a year ago, is clouding peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that were revived in November but have made little progress.
A top Israeli official on Sunday said there was "significant progress" toward a possible truce with Hamas, although it would not include the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
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