CAIRO (AFP) — A Hamas delegation met Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo late on Monday as Egypt continued bids to broker an extended truce with Israel over Gaza, the state MENA news agency reported.
It said the Islamist delegation was preparing to return to the Gaza Strip and Syria to await Israel's final say on a long-term truce.
A Hamas official told the news agency the delegation had been informed Israel would respond to an Egyptian truce proposal on Wednesday.
MENA reported that the delegation of senior Hamas leaders from Gaza and Syria will leave on Tuesday ahead of the meeting of Israel's security cabinet to vote on the truce.
Hamas has accused Israel of backtracking on a deal after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday ruled out lifting the blockade of Gaza, a key Hamas demand, until the Islamists release captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
Hamas has insisted that Shalit, seized in a cross-border raid from Gaza more than two years ago, will be freed in a separate prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
Israeli warplanes targeted smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt on Monday after two rockets were fired from the Palestinian territory, witnesses said.
Israel says armed groups use the tunnels around the border town of Rafah to smuggle weapons into the Hamas-run enclave.
Just hours before the air strike, two rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza but exploded without causing any casualties, the Israeli military said.
The latest violence in and around Gaza came despite ceasefires declared on January 18 after a three-week Israeli onslaught against the territory's Islamist rulers that killed 1,330 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died.
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