Talks in Cairo amid Gaza truce

Egyptian officials are shuttling in Cairo between Israeli and Palestinian delegations to secure an enduring end to the latest war that has left Gaza devastated.

Led by an official from Fatah, the internationally backed party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian negotiations team also includes envoys from the groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas which has dominated Gaza since 2007.

"The most important thing to us is removing the blockade and start reconstructing Gaza," the Palestinian delegate Bassam Salhi said on Wednesday, referring to a eight-year siege by Israel that has kept necessary reconstruction materials out of the territory. "There can be no deal without that."

Half-a-million displaced

On Tuesday, Israel withdrew from Gaza, where nearly a month of airstrikes and ground shelling displaced about a half a million people, or nearly a third of the territory's residents. The bombardment, which began on June 8, killed 1,875 in Gaza, about 75 percent of them civilians, according to UN estimates.

Israel said 64 of its soldiers died in fighting. Three noncombatants were killed by rockets fired at Israel.

Jordan has circulated a resolution at the United Nations calling for investigations into Israel's bombardment of UN-run schools in Gaza, which killed dozens of civilians fleeing the strikes. Ambassador Dina Kawar said the main purpose of Jordan's draft resolution was to make permanent the 72-hour cessation of hostilities, first agreed to on Monday. A truce that went into effect on August 1 ended almost as soon as it began.

'Get food in'

Israel seeks Gaza's demilitarization, a move backed by the US. In an interview Wednesday on the BBC's HARDtalk, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Hamas would have to decommission its rocket arsenal.

"What we want to do is support the Palestinians and their desire to improve their lives and to be able to open crossings and get food in and reconstruct and have greater freedom," Kerry said. "But that has to come with a greater responsibility towards Israel, which means giving up rockets, moving into a different plane," he added.

Kerry said this would "finally come together" as part of peace efforts he spearheaded before Israel broke off talks after a unity deal between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in spring.

The US is also set to participate in the Cairo talks, although it remains unclear to what level and in what capacity.

mkg/ipj (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)