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Israeli Official Leaves Cairo After Gaza Truce Talks

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A senior Israeli official left Cairo on Friday after a several-hour visit to Egypt for talks with Egyptian mediators on a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement in the warring Gaza Strip.

Amos Gilad, head of the Diplomatic-Security Bureau of Israeli Defense Ministry, left Cairo without announcing any progress on the latest ceasefire talks during his second visit to Egypt in two days.

Israeli diplomatic-security cabinet was scheduled to meet Friday to vote on the Egyptian offer, but it has decided to put off the debate until Gilad returns from Cairo with the latest information.

According to Egyptian media reports after Gilad's talks with Egyptian officials on Thursday, Israel responded to the Egyptian ceasefire initiative "favorably," but had some "reservations" on Hamas' vision.

On Thursday, Hamas also said it has told Egyptian mediators that it is ready to accept a one-year renewable truce with Israel in Gaza if Israel pulls out its troops from the Palestinian enclave within a week and reopens Gaza border crossings with international guarantees.

Meanwhile, the Damascus-based Hamas top leader in exile Khaled Meshaal vowed Friday that his movement would not accept Israel's conditions for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Meshaal, representing the Palestinian side, made the remarks in an emergency Arab summit on Friday afternoon at the Qatari capital of Doha, which was attended by some 12 Arab leaders despite it did not reach the quorum of two-thirds of the 22-member Arab League to hold such a summit.

Since Israel launched its military operation in Gaza on December 27, 2008, more than 1,133 Palestinians have been killed and some 5,100 others wounded, according to Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2009)

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