Israeli security forces have prevented thousands of Jewish protestors from staging a mass demonstration against the plans to remove Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip next month.
The protestors had planned a three-day march to the main settlement in the territory, but more than 10,000 police and soldiers were deployed to stop the assembly in southern Israel.
The protestors planned to gather in the town of Netivot, 15km from the crossing into Gaza, and march to the border, but the security forces were under strict orders from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to prevent them reaching the crossing.
Opponents of the planned withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Gaza are intent on preventing it by flooding the settlements with radicals.
Hamas committed to ceasefire
The Palestinian militant group, Hamas, earlier said it remained committed to the five-month old unofficial ceasefire in spite of the growing level of violence in the region.
In the past few days, Hamas has launched more than 100 missiles at Israeli targets, and Israel has warned that it will respond with a major military operation if the attacks do not stop.
But Mr Sharon has said the violence will not stop next month's planned withdrawal.
Egypt's deputy intelligence chief, Mustafa al-Buheiri, had rushed to Gaza in a bid to rescue the truce after escalating unrest killed 12 Palestinians and six Israelis in five days.
Hamas's Saeed Seyam said it was ‘premature’ to talk of a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who met the Egyptian delegation earlier.
'In the meantime, we'd like the Palestinian Authority to put pressure on the Zionist enemy to halt its aggressions,' he added.
Aides said the Palestinian leader was in any case unwilling to meet Hamas yesterday after the group's military wing rained mortar fire on the largest Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, wounding six settlers, two of them seriously.
The attack came after the Israeli military killed at least eight Hamas militants since Friday, in the first targeted killings in seven months.
Mr Abbas also rejected a proposal by Hamas to establish a joint committee to coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza next month.
'No one can imagine that we would allow a rival power base to be set up,' he said.
