Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Palestinian president at a meeting on Sunday that Israel would allow vital goods to enter the impoverished Gaza Strip, officials said.
"The two leaders discussed at length the situation in Gaza and both agreed on the need to prevent a humanitarian crisis there," Olmert spokesman David Baker said, referring to the talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Olmert was said to have given the reassurance during his first meeting with Abbas since Palestinian militants destroyed large sections of the border wall with Egypt, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans pouring into the Sinai.
"(Olmert) reassured Abbas that Israel would continue to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza after Abu Mazen (Abbas) requested that Israel not harm the civilian population in the Gaza Strip," a senior Israeli official said.
The official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said there were talks under way between Olmert and the office of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on how to re-establish the border.
President Mahmud Abbas huddled with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for two hours in Jerusalem as part of their regular encounters in renewed peace talks, officials said.
"Most of the meeting was one-on-one discussing the situation in Gaza and Rafah," Gaza's main border crossing with Egypt, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity.
Rafah is Gaza's sole crossing that bypasses Israel and has been open to unhindered passage of goods and people since Wednesday, when militants blew up several sections of the border barrier amid a punishing Israeli blockade. Abbas had been due to ask Olmert that Israel allow his forces to control the border that Gaza militants blew open last week.
"During the talks, president Abbas is going to ask Olmert that the (Palestinian) Authority forces deploy on the frontier between Gaza and Egypt," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP.
A senior Israeli official told AFP that for the moment Israel was not ruling out anything on restoring order. But another Israeli official said: "The idea of (Abbas's party) Fatah taking over security in the Gaza Strip sounds completely unrealistic at this time."
"Abbas is due to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday after Cairo invited him and Hamas for separate talks about the border crisis.
In southern Gaza, Hamas armed forces on Sunday set up checkpoints in the divided town of Rafah, preventing Gaza cars from entering Egypt, an AFP correspondent said.
Pedestrians were still allowed to cross freely - though they were fewer in number than the previous days - and cars from Egypt were also allowed to enter.
Before the Hamas take-over, the Rafah border crossing was run jointly by Egypt, Palestinian Authority forces and European Union observers, with surveillance cameras allowing Israel to monitor those passing through.
Israel has become increasingly concerned about unfettered access in and out of Gaza by Hamas, a group pledged to Israel's destruction, closing areas near the Egyptian border to civilians and urging Israelis to leave the Sinai.
The Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday heard a petition by rights groups asking that the state be ordered to restore the number of fuel supplies to Gaza in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
The court adjourned without specifying when it would issue its ruling.
Israel imposed a full-scale lockdown on Gaza in retaliation for persistent rocket fire from the territory on January 17.
Amid mounting international concern about a looming humanitarian disaster, Israel eased the blockade five days later, and has since allowed limited humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza.
Aid agencies warn that a crisis would erupt if Israel did not ease the punishing restrictions, with a spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) telling AFP that Gaza was teetering "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe" despite the open border with Egypt.
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