Hamas team arrives in Egypt to move forward on ceasefire talks

Hamas officials said earlier that Hamas had no objections to a ceasefire lasting 18 months but a lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip must be part of the deal.

 

A previous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in December, leading to a three-week Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave in which at least 1,300 Palestinians were killed before both sides separately halted hostilities.Â

 

"We've agreed to a unified position, and we'll relay it to the Egyptian authorities and then we'll take their response to the leadership in Damascus and then return to Cairo again," senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told Reuters soon after crossing the border into Egypt as part of a seven-person Hamas delegation.

 

It was the first time Zahar has appeared in public since the end of the Israeli offensive.

 

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the delegation also included Salah al-Bardaweel and Nizar Awadallah -- both high-ranking officials in the organization which runs Gaza -- and that the Egyptians would brief them on the latest Israeli position.

 

Egyptian media had reported that Hamas would reply to an Egyptian proposal for an 18-month truce in Gaza on Saturday but a senior Syrian-based Hamas official said the group was still gauging progress in Cairo's efforts.

 

"An aide to (Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert was just in Cairo. We haven't heard yet about what went on," Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters from Khartoum earlier on Saturday.

 

Hamas regards the blockade as illegal collective punishment on Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian population and cited it as a reason for not renewing the previous truce.

 

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Friday Hamas would reject a truce unless it included a lifting of the blockade. He called Israeli proposals received through Egypt as vague.

 

Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, is in Khartoum as part of a push to reinforce regional support for Hamas after the Israeli offensive, which Hamas believes led to diplomatic gains for the group.

 

CAPTURED ISRAELI SOLDIER

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a prisoner swap to free a captured Israeli soldier have shown little progress, Reuters reported, as Turkish officials are in Damascus to hold talks with officials from Palestinian militant group.

 

Osama al-Muzaini, a senior Hamas official close to negotiations to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in a 2006 cross-border raid, said any claims by Israel that progress had been made in the talks were "election-motivated".Â

 

"There has been no progress in the (Shalit) file for several months and that is because (Israel) remained unwilling to pay the price," Muzaini told Reuters.

 

Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Friday that Turkey has sent a delegation to Damascus to clinch a deal with Hamas for the release of Shalit and the contacts may reach a conclusion by a Feb. 10 election.

 

Muzaini said Israel had only agreed to 71 names from the list of 450 long-serving prisoners Hamas had proposed more than a year ago, Reuters reported.

 

The report also said one Palestinian official confirmed that Turkey as well as Qatar have taken a lead role in the negotiations over Shalit in recent months.

 

A surprise deal to swap Shalit for some of the thousands of Hamas prisoners in Israel could help Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who trail right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu in polls ahead of the election.

 

It could also be the key to clinching a long-term ceasefire deal in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip after Israel's 22-day military offensive.

 

Israel, which maintains a blockade of the coastal enclave, has linked a full reopening of the Gaza Strip's border crossings, a key Hamas demand in any truce, to Shalit's freedom. Israel tightened its blockade after Hamas seized the territory in 2007.

 

Israeli media suggested that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been making great efforts in recent weeks to clinch a deal with Hamas for the release of Shalit, and recently said privately that he is determined to try to bring Shalit home before he leaves office.

 

Israeli Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli officials as saying significant progress has been made in truce talks. Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 prisoners including 450 long-serving inmates in exchange for Shalit.