Egyptians press Israelis, Palestinians on Gaza truce

A Palestinian man looks out over destruction in Gaza City's al-Tufah neighbourhood as the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip entered a second day on Wednesday.

AFP

Egyptian officials mediating talks for a durable truce in Gaza met an Israel delegation during the night and were to relay their demands to Palestinian representatives, Palestinian sources said on Wednesday.

The shuttle diplomacy comes as a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after a month of fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces entered a second day on Wednesday.

Palestinian officials in Cairo said they would respond to the Israeli terms through the Egyptian intelligence officials, although a senior Hamas official has already rejected an Israeli demand that militants in Gaza disarm.

Meanwhile, international Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair and UN Middle East peace process co-ordinator Robert Serry were scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian officials later on Wednesday.

The Egyptian-mediated 72-hour ceasefire that went into effect on Tuesday has brought relief to both sides after fighting that erupted on July 8 killed 1,875 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side.

The talks in Cairo are aimed at securing a durable ceasefire after the three-day window closes.

Experts say the underlying problems in Gaza, a small coastal enclave flanked by Israel and Egypt that has undergone three conflicts with Israel since 2008, would also have to be addressed.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in a BBC interview, called for a sustained ceasefire but stressed that the crucial wider issues would need to be tackled.

The Palestinians demand an end to the eight-year Israeli blockade of Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has demanded that Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006 although designated a terrorist group by the US and Israel, disarm its militia.

A senior Hamas official in Cairo said on Tuesday the militants would not even consider laying down their weapons, which include an arsenal of unguided rockets and anti-tank missiles.

"Whoever tries to take our weapons, we will take his life," said Ezzat al-Rishq on Twitter.

On the first day of the truce in Gaza City, people came out in numbers, children played on the street and some shops reopened for the first time in days.

Others ventured home only to find utter devastation.

“What am I going to tell my wife and children? I don’t want them to see this! They will go crazy,” said Khayri Hasan al-Masri, a father of three who returned to his heavily damaged home in Beit Hanun in the north after fleeing when Israel’s ground offensive began on July 17.

In southern Israel, there was relief but scepticism.

“I never trust Hamas,” said Orly Doron, a mother living in a Gaza border kibbutz that has been battered by rocket fire.

“We had three or four ceasefires during this war; we all saw they weren’t kept.”

A poll published by Israeli daily Haaretz on Wednesday said a majority of Israelis thought “nobody” had won the conflict in Gaza.

“Following the ceasefire, how would you describe the results of Operation Protective Edge?” A total of 51% of those who took part in the poll said neither side had won.

Another 36% said they thought Israel had won, and just 6% thought Hamas had emerged victorious.