U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon became the latest global diplomat to try to put out Middle East fires on Wednesday as he began his weeklong Middle East trip in Egypt with a call for intensifying negotiations and an immediate halt to fighting in Gaza.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, whose nation has dominated the search for a solution to Israel's battle with Hamas, said it had received the militant group's latest proposal and would convey it to the Israelis.
For the past 19 days, Israel has been hitting the Gaza Strip in an attempt to end Hamas rocket fire, killing over 940 Palestinians, according to Palestinian medical officials.
"My call is (for) an immediate end to violence in Gaza, and then to the Israeli military offensive and a halt to rocket attacks by Hamas," Ban told reporters after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict," he said, adding that the "negotiations need to be intensified to provide arrangements and guarantees in order to sustain an endurable cease-fire and calm."
Late Tuesday, Ban flew from New York to Cairo, where Mubarak launched an initiative with France a week ago aimed at achieving a temporary halt to the fighting to be followed by a permanent cease-fire and arrangements on border security.
Hamas delegations have been shuttling between Gaza, Cairo and Syria and Aboul Gheit indicated that an agreement was near, without revealing any details.
"There is a Hamas proposition, we will discuss it with the Israelis," he told reporters. "We will keep it under a lid of secrecy until we reach a cease-fire agreement that is followed by several interrelated steps to reach a cease-fire, ensure withdrawal (of the Israelis), open the crossing and secure the return of the monitors."
Israel and Hamas do not meet face to face, relying instead on Egypt as the mediator.
The foreign minister added that he envisioned a return to the situation just before a truce, brokered by Egypt, between Hamas and Israel broke down in December. However, neither side was happy with the situation under the truce. Hamas was upset that Gaza was still under an intense blockade, and Israel was upset Hamas was still able to launch rockets into Israel.
After Egypt, Ban heads to Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait. His itinerary does not include a stop in Gaza because of the ongoing conflict.
One possible solution to the crisis involves the use of Turkish troops as monitors, according to diplomats familiar with negotiations. Aboul Gheit did not reject the possibility outright during the press conference with Ban, but said it was "premature" until agreement from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which is in control of the West Bank and has been at odds with Hamas, had been reached.
Efforts of Arab countries to contain the crisis were riven, meanwhile, with their own divisions. Qatar on Wednesday managed to get enough Arab countries to agree on an emergency summit meeting in its capital of Doha for Friday.
Its efforts succeeded over the strong opposition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia who preferred a meeting a few days later in Kuwait on the sidelines of an economic summit.
Responding to a question about the tussle over competing summits, Aboul Gheit said: "Currently it reflects this division but if one summit is held, we will have, God willing, an Arab position that would ensure united Arab action."
Meanwhile in Syria, about 3,000 demonstrators marched to the U.N. offices in Damascus and handed over a letter addressed to Ban protesting the Gaza offensive. The crowd carried Palestinian flags and photos of dead Gaza children, and some protesters burned an Israeli flag.
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