OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, February 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel and the Palestinians were Friday, February 4, engaged in hot preparations for next Tuesday’s peace summit hosted by Cairo, with both sides putting some of their expectations of the table, letting others guess the rest.

Israel, for its part, said it was ready to “take risks” in its negotiations with the Palestinians but discord emerged over its offer to release hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

Palestinians rejected an Israeli offer to release 900 detainees as a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, calling the proposal “insulting.”

Also, leader of the major resistance movement, Hamas, said the Islamic resistance group was ready for a truce, but that the ball was now in Israel’s court to reciprocate.

Palestinian observers, however, expressed their belief the coming summit would focus more on how to run the current impasse in the peace process, than on ways to dramatically solve that impasse.

Abbas seeks guarantees for a mutual ceasefire. (Reuters)

Since the declaration of the summit – to be attended also by the Jordanian Monarch – press reports in the region highlighted certain goals Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would be seeking to achieve.

On top of these goals would be an end to the Palestinian Intifada he himself triggered by his provocative visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque in September 2000 when he was leading the opposition.

The demands also include the return of Egyptian and Jordanian Ambassadors to Tel Aviv, according to London-based Al-Hayat daily Friday.

The two diplomats were withdrawn by Cairo and Amman in protest at Israeli aggressions against the Palestinians that escalated several months ago. But well-informed Egyptian sources told the Arabic daily the return is not considered.

Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told public radio Friday, “We are strong enough to take risks in negotiating with the Palestinians.”

“All our security officials believe that important changes have taken place within the Palestinian Authority because it's the first time a Palestinian leader opposes terrorism,” he added, referring to Mahmud Abbas, who was elected last month to succeed the late Yasser Arafat.

Abbas has publicly called for an end to attacks against Israel while seeking to clinch a ceasefire deal with resistance factions, who stressed their operations are just a response to aggressions of occupation forces.

Olmert said the summit’s objective was to “convince the world of Ariel Sharon's courage and boldness in accepting to make gestures towards the Palestinians”.

“It's now up to them to prove that they are capable of implementing what they promised.”

The one-day summit is widely expected to close with a mutual ceasefire declaration.

Meshal says ““the ball is in the Israeli court”.

“This summit is very important and there is much hope that it will succeed in reviving the peace process and securing a mutual ceasefire and a withdrawal from Palestinian cities,” said Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Nevertheless, the road to the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit has yet to be paved. The issue of detainees remains a stumbling block.

Israel’s so-called kitchen cabinet approved Thursday, February 3, the releasing of 900 Palestinian detainees “with no blood on their hands” -- with the first 500 to be set free soon after the summit.

“This is an insulting proposal,” said a Palestinian who attended the meeting at which the offer was made, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

“You're hurting Abbas rather than coming toward him. You need to release all 237 prisoners jailed before the [1993] Oslo Accords. That's what’s important to us - not the 900 you are proposing. You aren’t coordinating the names with us.”

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erakat also criticized Israel's offer, saying it was freeing only people serving relatively short terms.

But Israelis said that this was the final offer: No additional detainees would be freed, and none with “blood on their hands.”

“We will accept to change the criteria used to free prisoners only when we will see that Palestinians are undertaking irreversible measures against terrorists,” the daily quoted an Israeli official as saying.

Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal said that while his group had agreed to maintain temporary calm, “the ball is in the Israeli court, and what we are requesting is that Israel commits to stopping the aggression and freeing the detainees.”

He stressed resistance forces in general are ready to deal positively with the issue of a period of calm or a temporary truce.

However, “given our earlier experiences, we do not believe in Israeli commitments. In 2003, Israeli aggressions led to the failure of a three-month ceasefire declared by Palestinian factions,” Meshal told IslamOnline.net

Palestinian analysts concurred, downplaying the outcome of the intensively propagated summit in the Egyptian resort, saying the participants would discuss ways to run the crisis rather than focusing on how to reach final solutions.

“I do not expect the summit to break the impasse, as Sharon would present a list of security demands, which Palestinians would meet with making other demands,” Mukheimr Abu Saada, a political science professor at Gaza University, told IOL.

Saada believed that Abbas would present his plan for dismantling infrastructure of resistance to Israeli occupation, a key demand pressed by the roadmap plan.

But Al-Hayat said the roadmap would not be discussed in the summit. The blueprint carried Palestinians’ hopes for establishing an independent state to exist side by side with Israel.