Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met late Wednesday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to discuss the cease-fire efforts. In a sign of progress, Israel's chief negotiator, Amos Gilad, planned to fly to Egypt on Thursday to present Israel's stance, a senior defense official said. Gilad had put off the trip in recent days, saying the time was not yet ripe.

A senior Israeli official said it was far from certain that Israel would accept the deal. He said Israel welcomed many parts of the plan, but is concerned that Hamas will not respect a cease-fire as long as troops are in Gaza. The Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Israel has made clear that the Cairo talks are key to determining whether it widens its offensive and sends thousands of reservists into crowded, urban areas where casualties on both sides would likely mount.

Israeli leaders signaled that they have crippled Hamas to their satisfaction after 19 days of heavy bombardment and ground fighting, but were holding out for international guarantees that weapons would no longer be smuggled into Gaza.

Israel showed no signs of slowing its bruising offensive, striking some 60 targets. One airstrike hit an overcrowded cemetery, spreading human remains over a wide area. The army said the airstrike targeted a weapons cache hidden near the graveyard.

Two firefighters were killed in an airstrike as they tried to extinguish a blaze in a residential building in northern Gaza City late Wednesday, Palestinian medics said. A shell had been fired at the apartment, causing the blaze.

The rocket fire from Lebanon caused no injuries, but sent residents scurrying to bomb shelters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and speculation focused on small Palestinian groups. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, denied involvement in last week's attack.

In a Web audiotape Wednesday, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a holy war against Israel. Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious opinion, or fatwa, forbidding the purchase of any Israeli goods or trade with Israeli companies.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a visit to the Mideast on Wednesday, urging an immediate halt to the violence.

"It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict," he said after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "Negotiations need to be intensified to provide arrangements and guarantees in order to sustain an endurable cease-fire and calm."

Ban is scheduled to arrive Thursday in Israel. He will also visit Jordan, the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait. His itinerary does not include a stop in Gaza because of the ongoing conflict.

If a cease-fire is reached, it would aim to give 10 days of quiet to work out the contentious issues of a longer truce, according to the framework outlined by the Egyptian and Palestinian officials close to the talks.

During that time, Egyptian, Turkish and other international mediators would try to negotiate an arrangement for policing Gaza's borders -- particularly those with Egypt -- to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory, the officials said.

This would likely entail some kind of international monitors on the Palestinian side of the border -- but the two sides remain far apart on who would make up the force, where they would be deployed and their mission.

Hamas has so far publicly resisted deploying international monitors and has demanded a role in policing the crossings and borders. Israel -- like the United States, the EU and other nations -- considers Hamas a terrorist group and has always rejected a role for it policing the crossings.

Only after a deal on border security has been reached would the crossings be opened and Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza, as Hamas has demanded, the officials said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit underlined that all elements must fall into place -- the cease-fire, the security arrangements, and the eventual opening of border crossings and Israeli withdrawal. Otherwise, "we will end up with a truce but without reconciliation or with a truce that will be broken," he said.

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said the army has made significant inroads against Hamas. She said Israel has destroyed 60 percent to 70 percent of the smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border -- Hamas' main lifeline for bringing weapons into the territory.

She also said Israel has reduced Hamas' rocket capabilities by 90 percent, from about 200 a day before the offensive to 20 or 30 each day. Seventeen rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday, down from as many as 80 a day early in the fighting.

Hamas militants fired a phosphorus shell into Israel for the first time, hitting a field near the border town of Sderot but causing no casualties, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. 

(Agencies via China Daily January 15, 2009)