Hamas Reticent About Peace Moves

Egypt tried to broker an urgent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in talks with Israel yesterday but there was no contact between Israel and Hamas, while the Palestinian group appeared undecided about whether to accept an Egyptian-French initiative for halting the fighting after 13 days.

Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said he was aiming for a truce within 48 to 72 hours after President Hosni Mubarak first floated the plan on Tuesday. "I cannot imagine the Israeli killing machine continuing this operation," he told al-Hayat newspaper.

Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, met Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence ministry official, to discuss future border monitoring. Gilad returned later to Jerusalem to brief the security cabinet. Israel has "welcomed" but not accepted the plan, which calls for a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, talks on border security and opening crossing points.

Reports from Damascus said several Palestinian groups had rejected it. "Palestinian organizations, notably Hamas, see no valid basis in the Egyptian plan for a solution to the crisis," said Khaled Abdel-Majid of the Palestine Struggle Front, a member of a coalition that includes Islamic Jihad. But Hamas officials in Gaza said the group was still considering the plan.

Confusion over the Hamas position is almost certainly linked to the difficulty of communication between Damascus and Gaza, where Hamas officials are wary of using phones in case that enables Israel to target them. Hamas may also be playing for time. It also mistrusts Egypt and fears Israel will mobilize international opinion to impose a settlement.

Meanwhile, the search for international consensus to support a ceasefire received a significant boost at the UN in New York when the US delegation led by Condoleezza Rice made a sharp shift of position. Until then the US had resisted any attempt to pass a formal UN resolution, wishing to avoid any criticism of Israel.

But late yesterday the US suddenly swung behind the idea, allowing British officials to draft a resolution in the name of three permanent members of the UN security council: US, the UK and France. The resolution was the subject of intense negotiations at the UN yesterday.