CAIRO (AFP) — A top Israeli official met Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Sunday in the latest bid to find a truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip but Israel's internal security chief cast doubt on the chances of success.
Amos Gilad, a senior aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, met Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman who has been mediating between Israel and Palestinian militant factions, including the Islamist movement Hamas which has ruled Gaza for almost a year
Israel refuses to talk directly to the Islamist group, which it considers a terrorist organisation.
Hamas has demanded the lifting of the crippling blockade of Gaza, which Israel says it imposed in a bid to force militants to stop attacking it with rockets and mortar rounds.
The violence in and around Gaza has cast a shadow over peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians which were revived in November but have made only faltering progress.
Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's internal security service Shin Beth, was quoted by a senior government official as casting doubt on the success of the Gaza truce efforts.
"Hamas is interested in a truce but is refusing to accept Israel's conditions. It is putting an emphasis on the removal of the blockade and wants to buy time in order to continue its power building," Diskin was quoted as saying in an Israeli cabinet meeting.
Diskin said that Hamas has so far rejected Israel's demand that the Islamists commit before the Egyptians to halting all weapon smuggling from the Sinai peninsula into Gaza.
Another stumbling block was Hamas's demand for Israel to agree on a timetable for applying a truce in the West Bank, which is ruled by moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Diskin said.
"Israel has demanded that the truce will not be applied in the West Bank, he said.
Diskin said Hamas has demanded that Egypt agree to open its Rafah crossing with Gaza even if truce efforts fail.
The Shin Beth chief also said that Hamas has in recent months obtained Iranian-made rockets which can hit as far as the strategic port city of Ashkelon, located 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Gaza.
"We won't be able in the long-run not to deal with the rocket threat from Gaza. Any future military action will exact more victims on both sides as time passes."
In Cairo, Gilad and Suleiman discussed "means of removing obstacles to realising a truce between Palestinians and Israelis," Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
Suleiman is pursuing "intensive contacts with all Palestinian and Israeli parties in order to bring the two sides' points of view closer in order to reach an agreement on a truce as quickly as possible," MENA quoted a senior Egyptian official as saying.
The unnamed official urged Israelis and Palestinians to show "the flexibility necessary to reach a truce."
Suleiman "is doing everything possible to convince the Israelis and Palestinians to give their agreement to a truce," he said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned before the talks that Israel did not intend to "drag out" the Gaza issue.
"Israel wants quiet and full security both in the immediate term and in the long term for residents in the south," he said.
"We will have to make decisions in a way that will guarantee this result. If the outcome can be reached by Egypt's efforts, even better."
As part of the truce negotiations Israel has demanded progress on freeing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June 2006 by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza.
Israel has also called for guarantees that Hamas would not use any period of calm to replenish its arsenal.
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