Mediators race against clock to extend Gaza truce

Mediators worked against the clock on Aug. 7 to extend a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinians as the three-day ceasefire went into its final 24 hours.

Israel has said it is ready to agree to an extension as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israelis and Palestinians on an enduring end to a war that devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave, while Palestinians want an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza to be lifted and prisoners held by Israel to be freed.

"Indirect talks are ongoing and we still have today to secure this," an Egyptian official said when asked whether the truce was likely to go beyond Aug. 8. "Egypt's aims are to stabilise and extend the truce with the agreement of both sides and to begin negotiations towards a permanent agreement to cease fire and ease border restrictions."

After a month of bitter fighting, the two sides are not meeting face to face. Gaza officials say the war has killed 1,874 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed since fighting began on July 8, after a surge in Palestinian rocket salvoes into Israel.

An Israeli official said late on Aug. 6 that Israel "has expressed its readiness to extend the truce under its current terms" beyond Aug. 7 morning's deadline for the three-day deal that took effect on Tuesday and has so far held.

But a Hamas leader based in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said: "If there had been an opportunity for peace, it was lost with the remains of our children and the rubble of our homes."

A Hamas source said the group's military wing was ready to resume fighting once the truce ended unless its demands were met.

A Hamas refusal to extend the truce could further alienate Egypt...