Hamas delegation to arrive in Cairo to respond to Gaza truce proposal

Click here for more on GazaHamas has accepted an Egyptian plan to establish a long-term truce with Israel, the Al-Arabiya Arabic channel reported Sunday, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened a "fierce and disproportionate" response to continued rocket fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian and Egyptian news agencies had earlier reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed a trip to the Czech Republic to visit Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today following what Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Shaath, called a "breakthrough" in the cease-fire negotiations in Cairo.

Shaath did not elaborate, and Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki likewise refused to comment on reports that Hamas had accepted the Egyptian cease-fire plan.

A Hamas delegation is set to arrive in the Egyptian capital on Monday.

Israel has stressed that it is not negotiating with Hamas, but with Egypt and the international community. It said its conditions for a truce are that Hamas halt rocket fire at Israel, and there be an end to the smuggling of weapons into the territory.

Two weeks ago Israel and then Hamas separately announced unilateral cease-fires, ending three weeks of intense fighting in the Gaza Strip, which Israel launched in response to continued rocket fire.

The sides have clashed since the cease-fire went into effect on January 18, with Gaza-based militants sporadically firing rockets and Israel hitting back with air strikes.

Four rockets and mortar shells hit Israel Sunday, and Olmert, addressing ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, said he had told the defense minister to order the military to prepare a response to the rocket fire.

"We will act according to new rules which will ensure that we are not dragged into an endless shooting war along the southern border," Olmert said at the cabinet meeting.

"The Israeli action and the Israeli response will be given at the time, place and according to the method we will decide," he said.

In the Gaza Strip itself, officials at the main power station said it would stop working later in the day due to insufficient supplies of industrial diesel allowed through the Israel-Gaza border crossings.