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Hamas rejects Israeli cease-fire terms

CAIRO: As the war in Gaza entered its 21st day and the quest for a truce resumed here and in Washington, the senior leader in exile of Hamas rejected Israel's terms for a cease-fire and Israel rejected a call by the leader of the United Nations for Israel to stop its assault.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday in Washington that the United States had agreed to a range of measures, including providing international monitors, to help Israel stem the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip, a step that could open the way for a cease-fire. A memorandum of understanding was hastily drafted for the signature of Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, who is visiting Washington.

The agreement will give the Israeli government confidence to agree to open border crossings in Gaza, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. That could allow both sides to sign on to an Egyptian-sponsored cease-fire proposal, the official said.

Under the agreement, the United States will provide technical assistance and monitors to crack down on the network of tunnels through which Hamas moves components for rockets and missiles from the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza.

"The fighting must stop," Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations said at a news conference in Ramallah, West Bank, calling for Israel to consider a unilateral cease-fire. "We have no time to lose."

Mark Regev, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, dismissed Ban's call, according to news reports.

"I don't believe that there's a logical expectation in the international community that Israel unilaterally cease fire while Hamas would continue to target cities, trying to kill our people," he said.

The Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, told an unusual Arab gathering in Doha, Qatar, "I assure you, despite all the destruction in Gaza, we will not accept Israel's conditions for a cease-fire."

In a speech broadcast across the Arab world and widely followed in the Middle East and elsewhere, he said Hamas was not ready to quit, even though three weeks of fighting has claimed around 1,100 Palestinian lives.

"Resistance in Gaza has not been defeated," he said. "It has suffered harm but it has not been defeated."

Israel has long insisted that a cease-fire should be long-term and sustainable, preventing Hamas from firing rockets at Israel or rearming. Meshal, who is based in Damascus, told the meeting that Hamas would accept a cease-fire only if Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip, lifted its blockade and reopened border crossing points.

Meshal made the keynote address on Friday, securing a significant platform in his rivalry with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, while Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. In his speech, Meshal said settlements with Israel in the past had not brought solutions for Palestinians' problems.

According to Egyptian officials who know details of the cease-fire negotiations, Hamas has been plagued by internal bickering, with the Syria-based leadership hewing to a tougher line on concessions from Israel, while the Gaza-based leadership has been more eager to halt the fighting and more flexible in negotiations.

Gaza residents said Friday that the fighting seemed less intense than on the previous day, when Israeli forces shelled the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency and other buildings in Gaza. Israel said the strike was in response to enemy fire.

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem. Reporting was contributed by Taghreed El-Khodary from Gaza; Steven Erlanger and Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem; Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations, New York; Mark Landler from Washington; and Alan Cowell from Paris.