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 As a 72-hour ceasefire held for a second day, Palestinian
negotiators began talks with Egyptian intelligence after a meeting
on Monday that lasted nine hours. The Israeli delegation was
expected to travel to Cairo later in the day.
Hamas and its allies are seeking an end to an Israeli and Egyptian
blockade of the Gaza Strip.
"We are facing difficult negotiations," Hamas' leader in Cairo,
Moussa Abu Marzouk, said on Twitter.
Egyptian state news agency Mena quoted Khaled al Batch, a leader of
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, as saying the present round of talks was
"the most serious, intensive and difficult."
"The gaps between the sides are big and there is no progress in the
negotiations," said an Israeli official who declined to be named.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, the Islamist group that
dominates Gaza.
A Palestinian official with knowledge of the Cairo talks told
Reuters, on condition of anonymity: "So far we can't say a
breakthrough has been achieved ... Twenty-four hours and we shall
see whether we have an agreement."
Hamas also wants the opening of a seaport for Gaza, a project Israel
says should be dealt with only in any future talks on a permanent
peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel has resisted lifting the economically stifling blockade on
Gaza and suspects Hamas will restock with weapons from abroad if
access to the coastal territory is eased. Neighboring Egypt also
sees Hamas as a security threat.
Israel pulled ground forces out of Gaza last week after it said the
army had completed its main mission of destroying more than 30
tunnels dug by militants for cross-border attacks. It now wants
guarantees Hamas will not use any reconstruction supplies sent into
the enclave to rebuild those tunnels.
The Palestinian official said the Palestinian delegation had agreed
that reconstruction in Gaza should be carried out by the unity
government of technocrats set up in June by Hamas and the more
secular Fatah party of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.
Israeli representatives are not meeting face-to-face with the
Palestinian delegation because it includes Hamas, which Israel
regards as a terrorist organization. Hamas for its part is sworn to
Israel's destruction.
WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATION
In Gaza, many families have returned to areas they had been forced
to leave by the Israeli army, but some found their homes had been
shelled or bombed. Some people pitched tents, while others spent the
night in their homes if they could.
Children looked for toys in the rubble. One boy was happy to find
his bicycle, pushing it along even though the tires had been
punctured.
"It is not safe yet but we miss our homes, we miss our neighborhood,
so we come to sit with friends and chat about our fate," said Abu
Khaled Hassan, 50.
Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at a Palestinian fishing
boat which broke the naval blockade on Tuesday, the military said,
and Gaza officials said no one was hurt. The incident did not appear
to threaten the truce.
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Gaza hospital officials say 1,938 Palestinians, most of them
civilians, have been killed since the July 8 launch of Israel's
military campaign to quell rocket fire from the enclave.
Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians, while the heavy
losses among civilians and the destruction of thousands of homes in
Gaza, where 1.8 million Palestinians are squeezed into a narrow
enclave, have drawn international condemnation. According to the
United Nations, at least 425,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip
are in emergency shelters or staying with host families. Nearly
12,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli air
strikes and heavy shelling.
In Geneva, the United Nations named an international commission of
inquiry into possible human rights violations and war crimes by both
sides during the conflict.
The commission, which will be headed by William Schabas, a Canadian
professor of international law, was hailed by Hamas and condemned by
Israel.
"Hamas welcomes the decision to form an investigation committee into
the war crimes committed by the occupation (Israel) against Gaza and
it urges that it begin work as soon as possible," spokesman Sami Abu
Zuhri said.
Israel's foreign ministry said the Human Rights Council was biased
against Israel. "The Human Rights Council long ago turned into the
'terrorist rights council' and a kangaroo court, whose
'investigations' are pre-determined," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Yigal Palmor said in a statement.
"If any more proof were needed, the appointment of the chairman of
the panel, whose anti-Israel bias and opinions are known to all,
proves beyond any doubt that Israel cannot expect justice from this
body, whose report has already been written and all that is left is
to decide who will sign off on it."
Schabas rejected those claims. "As far as I am concerned they're not
written at all. That's the whole point of an investigation," he told
Israel Radio.
"I am not anti Israeli. I've frequently lectured in Israel at
universities. I am a member of the editorial board of the Israel Law
Review. I wouldn't do those things if I was anti Israel," Schabas
said.
"The more Israel participates in the inquiry by providing us with
specific information about targeting and selection of targets, that
will assist the commission in making more fair and accurate
judgments about proportionality," he added.
(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Giles
Elgood)
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