As fight goes on, glimmer of hope

JERUSALEM - Israel said yesterday that it was in "fundamental agreement" with the basic principles of a cease-fire proposal offered by Egypt and France and backed by the United States, but fighting continued in the Gaza Strip as diplomats haggled over details.

Israeli officials said they would send emissaries to Egypt today to hold talks on a potential truce proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"We are continuing to engage in these talks, and we hope this succeeds," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Israel has vowed to continue its 12-day military campaign until it is satisfied that Hamas, which controls Gaza, will be unable to rearm itself by smuggling weapons and rockets from Egypt.

The Netherlands, Denmark and Turkey all said yesterday that they would be willing to contribute to an international force that would patrol the Gaza-Egyptian border to prevent smuggling.

Israeli officials said they wanted to ensure that any such force would have the authority to stop arms trafficking and not just observe from a distance.

"There is a fundamental agreement on the principles," Regev said, "but what we need is a mechanism that will work."

Hamas officials, who have been involved separately in negotiations with Egypt, reacted coolly to the cease-fire plan.

Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the movement would not stop firing rockets into southern Israel until the Israeli military withdrew from the Palestinian territory and ended its 18-month-old economic blockade.

"We have the right to defend ourselves and protect ourselves," Youssef told Al Jazeera television.

Israel resumed its Gaza offensive yesterday, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt, after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid. Hamas responded with a rocket barrage.

Despite the heavy fighting, strides were made on the diplomatic front.

While the U.N. Security Council failed to reach agreement on a cease-fire resolution, Egypt's U.N. ambassador, Maged Abdelaziz, said representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority had agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials in Cairo today.

"We are very much applauding the efforts of a number of states, particularly the effort that President Mubarak has undertaken on behalf of Egypt," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "We're supporting that initiative."

Israeli air strikes killed 29 Palestinians yesterday. The latest casualties brought the Palestinian death toll during Israel's 12-day assault to 688. Ten Israelis have been killed, including three civilians, since the offensive began Dec. 27.

The fury of the renewed fighting made it appear each side was scrambling to get in as many hits as possible before a truce could materialize.

"I feel like the ground is shaking when we hear the shelling," said Fida Kishta, a resident of the Gaza-Egypt border area where Israeli planes destroyed 16 empty houses. "People are terrified."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that "if they come," Hamas representatives would not meet directly with the Israelis.

Israel regards Hamas as a terrorist group and refuses to negotiate with it.

The Israelis have allowed some aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory since they began air strikes. But relief workers said the sporadic shipments and yesterday's break in fighting did not come close to relieving what they described as a worsening crisis.

"It's not enough. Three hours a day is woefully inadequate," said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza.

Officials with Hamas had said they would respect the break in fighting and not fire rockets into southern Israel. "There will be no missile launching in these three hours," Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Arabiya television.

Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry, said that Hamas did fire upon Israeli soldiers in several encounters during the scheduled cessation and continued to launch rockets.

He said Israeli forces returned fire, but he acknowledged that the level of fighting overall had diminished during that time frame.

Relief agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Gaza, with most residents lacking electricity and running water, as well as access to emergency medical care.

The World Bank said yesterday that Gaza faced a "severe public health crisis" from a lack of potable water and failing sewage systems. It warned that a major sewage reservoir in Beit Lahiya was at risk of collapse.

"Failure of the lake structure would put about 10,000 residents of the surrounding area in danger of drowning and spark a wider environmental and public health disaster," the agency said in a statement.