By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Cease-fire negotiations intensified on Wednesday as Israeli forces kept up the pressure on Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian death toll rose above 1,000 after 19 days of air and ground attacks.
An Israeli envoy will meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Thursday after a Hamas delegation concluded talks on an Egyptian truce proposal by repeating their demand that Israel withdraw its troops and lift a long-standing blockade on coastal Gaza.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU envoy to the Middle East, told reporters in the West Bank: "My perception is we are very close to reaching a cease-fire. They are very close but still there is some work to be done."
In Cairo, Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said: "The movement has presented a detailed vision to the Egyptian leadership so it can continue its pursuit to end the aggression and lift the injustice on our people in the Gaza Strip."
Israel, which wants an end to rocket attacks on its towns and guarantees that Hamas cannot smuggle in more weapons from tunnels to neighbouring Egypt, said it would not agree to a truce allowing the Palestinian Islamists to regroup and rearm.
"Israel seeks a durable quiet that contains a total absence of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and a working mechanism to prevent Hamas from rearming," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Having launched the Gaza offensive on December 27 to counter Palestinian rocket salvoes, the Israeli government has been opaque on whether the assault could be wrapped up or stepped up.
But political analysts see a possible deadline in Tuesday's installation of Barack Obama as U.S. president, after which Israel may be reluctant to test the support of the White House for a military campaign that has stirred an international outcry.
Israelis also face a February 10 election which will pit Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu against one another, straining the cross-partisan support that the offensive has enjoyed so far.
THOUSAND DEAD
Releasing new figures, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said 1,024 Palestinians had been killed and 4,700 wounded by Israeli forces so far. The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said more than 670 civilians were among the dead.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in the same period, four by rockets. The cross-border salvoes have tapered off, but not entirely. Fourteen rockets struck Israel on Wednesday, the army said, causing some damage but no casualties.
Underscoring its demand for an end to Hamas arms-smuggling, Israel sent warplanes to drop more bunker-busting bombs along the 15 km (9 mile) sandy frontier between Gaza and Egypt.
"They used bombs that went deep into the tunnels and shook the whole Rafah refugee camp. The land trembled beneath our feet," said Bassam Abdallah, a local Palestinian cameraman.
Also in Cairo, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon renewed his call for "an immediate and durable cease-fire" between Israel and Hamas -- a group which swept Palestinian elections in 2006 but is shunned by the West for its diehard hostility to Israel.
The Israeli military said its forces bombed about 35 border tunnels and also struck Hamas police headquarters in the Israeli-encircled city of Gaza, as well as eight squads of gunmen and weapons storage facilities.
Palestinian medics said 24 people were killed on Wednesday, at least nine of them civilians, including two medics.
BIN LADEN
In an audio tape on Islamist websites, al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden urged jihad (holy struggle) over the Gaza offensive, which has stirred anger in the Arab and Muslim world.
Addressing "our brothers in Palestine," he said: "We are with you and we will not let you down. Our fate is tied to yours in fighting the Crusader-Zionist coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom."
In northern Israel, three rockets launched from Lebanon hit fields outside the town of Kiryat Shmona, the second such attack in less than a week. There was no claim of responsibility and Israel, which responded with artillery, said it hoped to avoid the opening of a second front. No one was hurt in the exchange.
With Israeli troops edging closer to the heart of the city of Gaza, international organisations have expressed growing concern about the plight of civilians trapped there.
Human rights groups have reported shortages of vital supplies, including water, in the Hamas-ruled territory. A fuel shortage has brought frequent power blackouts.
Israel has permitted almost daily truck shipments of food and medicine. But Human Rights Watch said Israel's daily three-hour break in attacks to facilitate the supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans was "woefully insufficient."
(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, and by Beirut and Cairo bureaux; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Dan Williams; Editing by Alison Williams)
