The Palestinians moved today to enforce their leadership's orders to halt mortar fire on Israelis amid announcements in Cairo of broader moves to reach a ceasefire and resume peace talks.
Though violence continued unabated today, both sides appeared to be making their biggest effort to end seven months of violence since Mr Ariel Sharon assumed the office of prime minister in Israel in early March.
Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres said that Israel would take immediate steps to ease the suffering in the Palestinian territories while it had reached an accord with the Palestinians on "how to handle the situation."
Egyptian President Mr Hosni Mubarak said both sides "had agreed to a ceasefire," though he gave no date for its taking effect and his own foreign minister, Mr Amr Mussa, said only that there were talks toward a ceasefire.
Mr Mubarak based his remarks on a letter he said Peres had delivered to him from Sharon.
Mr Mubarak and the Palestinians said they expected Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could resume four weeks after a ceasefire takes hold, though Mr Peres reportedly said such negotiations should follow two to three months of calm.
And in a conversation with Jordan's King Abdullah shortly before Mr Peres met the monarch Mr Sharon insisted on a "complete halt to terror", meaning all forms of violence.
"A trial period with no violence on the ground is necessary before negotiations resume", a statement from Mr Sharon's office quoted him as saying, without specifying the length of such a period.
In the Gaza Strip meanwhile, a Palestinian official said: "A mechanism has been set up to implement the decisions of the high council for Palestinian national security, in particular the order to stop mortar fire."
The council, acting on Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's instructions, decided late last night to disband a branch of his Fatah organisation responsible for launching mortar bombs at Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
It also resolved to prevent such activity and step up patrols to this end.
Despite the move, mortar bombs fell today on the Kfar Darom settlement, causing no casualties, according to an Israeli military spokesman.
AFP