JERUSALEM–The Israeli government closed a rift among its top leaders last night and rededicated itself to continued war in Gaza, amid reports Hamas may be willing to end the fight.

"Israel is not interested in a temporary solution which will just allow Hamas to regroup and rearm," Mark Regev, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told the Star.

He was speaking after Olmert met with Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in a bid to iron out their differences over a possible ceasefire deal.

The trio reaffirmed Israel's two key conditions for agreeing to a ceasefire – an end to hostile rocket fire from Gaza and "effective" guarantees there will be no more smuggling of weapons into the territory.

"Until this is done, the military pressure will keep up," Regev said.

"This is what came out of the meeting of the trio."

Earlier in the day, aides to Olmert and Barak traded barbs in the Israeli news media, after the defence minister publicly expressed his support for a week-long humanitarian ceasefire to allow Gaza's 1.5 million people a respite from the fighting after 19 days of war.

Livni is also said to want to end the fighting sooner rather than later.

The sniping among Israel's leadership coincided with reports from Cairo late yesterday that a Hamas delegation had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire proposal that would stop the armed conflict.

The delegation reportedly was flying from Cairo to Damascus last night to hold talks on the issue with top Hamas officials based in the Syrian capital.

The deal calls for 10 days of quiet to work out the contentious issues of a longer truce, according to Egyptian and Palestinian officials close to the talks.

During that time, Egyptian and other international mediators would try to negotiate an arrangement for policing Gaza's borders, Associated Press reports.

Israeli officials were expected in Cairo today to hold talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.

If Hamas has truly accepted Israel's terms, then "this can be over quickly," Regev said. "If this is game-playing and stalling, then the pressure will go on."

But a senior Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told reporters there that the group still objects to some provisions of the Egyptian proposal and was not ready to sign it yet.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Egypt yesterday and was scheduled to visit Israel today.

At a press conference, he reiterated his call for an immediate end to hostilities, in keeping with a Security Council resolution issued last week and so far ignored by both Israel and Hamas.

"It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict," he said.

Israel showed no signs of slowing its bruising offensive as fighting raged early today north and south of Gaza City, where explosions and gunfire could be heard.

Hospital officials said seven people were killed – four militants shortly after midnight in southern Gaza and three people an hour later in Gaza City.

The offensive has killed at least 1,018 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 300 children and teenagers, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry.

The toll included 68 Palestinians who were killed or died of wounds yesterday.

Israel has suffered 13 fatalities, four of them soldiers.

One Israeli soldier was seriously wounded yesterday after his unit was hit by an anti-tank missile.

Palestinian militants fired at least 17 rockets or mortar shells at Israel yesterday, down from as many as 80 a day earlier in the fighting that began Dec. 27.

The projectiles hit Ashkelon, Sderot, Beersheba and other communities in southern Israel, but there were no reports of damage or personal injury.

Three Katyusha rockets crashed in northern Israel yesterday without causing harm, after being launched from southern Lebanon.

It was the second such incident in less than a week, and Israel responded with artillery fire.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006, denied responsibility for a similar attack last weekend.

There was no word last night on who might have had responsibility for yesterday's barrage.

The Israeli Air Force continued flying sorties over Gaza yesterday, attacking about 60 targets, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel's fierce assault on Gaza's Hamas rulers has destroyed at least $1.4 billion worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure in already impoverished territory, Palestinian surveyors estimate.

Arab and Western countries will be called on to foot much of the bill to rebuild – which Palestinian economists say could take five years or more.

The foreign ministers of France, Norway and the European Union external relations commissioner are meeting in Paris today to discuss Gaza's reconstruction and the possibility of holding a new donors' conference.