Egypt in bid for new 72-hour Gaza truce: Palestinians

Egypt is pressing for a 72-hour Gaza ceasefire to be held tomorrow, Palestinian officials said, just hours after Hamas accused Israel of trying to scuttle Cairo truce talks.
Palestinian delegates in Cairo, including members of Hamas and president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, yesterday agreed joint demands for a planned truce with Israel, including an end to the Gaza blockade.
"Egypt is leading international efforts for a 72-hour humanitarian truce and a mutual ceasefire starting 8:00 am (local time) tomorrow," one of them said today, adding that all Palestinian factions had accepted the proposal.
Another delegate, Islamic Jihad representative Ziad El-Nakhale, told Palestinian radio: "Maybe in the next few hours we will announce a ceasefire."

Egypt, a traditional broker in Hamas-Israeli conflicts, had proposed last month soon after the latest conflict erupted an unconditional ceasefire followed by talks between the two sides.
Israel accepted that plan but Hamas rejected it, accusing Cairo of bypassing the Palestinian movement.

Last week Cairo invited the two sides again to send their delegations for talks to work on a durable, long-term ceasefire.
But Israel refused to send its negotiators, accusing Hamas of breaching a UN-backed 72-hour humanitarian truce that began on Friday but collapsed within hours.
Hamas today accused Israel of breaching that truce and of trying to scuttle the Cairo talks.

"The Israeli side is trying to foil the meeting in Cairo by violating the (72-hour) truce," said Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official in the Palestinian delegation.
Rishq told reporters Israel was staying away from the talks "because it does not want to bear responsibility for the massacres it has committed" in Gaza.
"Whether the delegation comes or not... It will not run away from its responsiblities. The Palestinian people will persue them at the ICC (International Criminal Court)."
The Palestinian demands agreed yesterday include "a ceasefire; Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza; the end of the siege of Gaza and opening its border crossings".

They have also demanded fishing rights up to 12 nautical miles off Gaza's coast and the release of Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas and Abbas.
"There is a consensus among all the Palestinian factions that Gaza can't return to a blockade... It is a natural right of the people of Gaza to live (freely) as any other people in the world," Rishq said.