Israel to hear Egypt on Gaza truce idea on Monday

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will host an Egyptian mediator on Monday to hear a proposal for a truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, though the Jewish state would still shun direct negotiations with the Islamist faction, Israeli officials said.

Following talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo last month, Hamas offered a six-month halt to hostilities in Gaza if Israel were also to lift a crippling embargo on the coastal Palestinian territory.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed the initiative when it was broached, but Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai signalled possible flexibility on Sunday.

"Omar Suleiman will come, we will listen to him, we will confer, we will see what he is offering, and on that basis we will make decisions," he told Israel Radio.

"As of now, there is nothing on the table for discussion... We have no dialogue with an organisation that flies the flag of our destruction," Vilnai said in reference to Hamas's refusal to forswear violence and recognise Israel.

Another Israeli official said Suleiman would come on Monday.

The United States has endorsed Cairo's mediation in hope of curbing violence that threatens to derail peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's Western-backed and secular rival.

A senior Israeli official said this month that Israel would likely agree to an informal ceasefire in Gaza if cross-border rocket attacks and arms smuggling into the territory ended.