(CNN) - Palestinian rivals agreed Thursday to work toward ending their bitter fighting in an effort to form a unity government in Gaza and the West Bank.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images. Leaders of rival Palestinian factions discuss the results of reconciliation talks in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday.

Among the measures reportedly reached in an Egyptian-brokered meeting in Cairo was an agreement between the two largest rival factions, Hamas and Fatah.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it would release Fatah prisoners it holds in Gaza. Fatah agreed to do the same with Hamas captives held in Fatah's West Bank base.

The participants also agreed to stop smear campaigns in the media, according to a statement released after the meeting.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images. Palestinain chief negotiator and Fatah member, Ahmed Qorei (L) speaks with Mussa Abu Marzuq (R), the exiled number two of the Islamist Hamas movement, during a joint press conference with leaders of rival Palestinian groups.

Representatives from other groups in the region also attended the meeting. Although the statement referred only to "all the Palestinian forces and factions," without naming them, Gaza's Ramattan news agency reported Fatah and Hamas were present.

The group agreed to form five committees to address the issue of prisoners, security and the formation of an election commission.

The statement said the committees would begin work March 10 and complete their work at the end of the month, by which time they hope a national unity government will be formed.

Several Western nations have expressed a reluctance to work with any government that includes Hamas, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist outfit.

Tensions between Fatah and Hamas reached a climax in June 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza in a bloody siege.

Palestinian security forces controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party were expelled from Gaza, and Fatah has since held sway only in the West Bank.

(CNN) - The human rights group Amnesty International is calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel and the Palestinians, saying both sides used weapons supplied from abroad to carry out attacks on civilians during their three-week conflict in Gaza.

The London-based group issued a 38-page report Sunday night that detailed "evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law by all parties."

Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the United States, killing hundreds of civilians and destroying homes, the group said.

The use of white phosphorus is restricted under international law. In the early days of the Gaza conflict, the Israel Defense Forces denied using the ordnance. But later, Israeli officials said only that any shells fired in Gaza were "in accordance with international law."

Amnesty said its researchers found munitions fragments littering school playgrounds, hospitals and homes after the 22-day fighting in Gaza ended in January.

Many of the munitions used by the Israeli army were American-made, and included bombs, white phosphorus remains and missiles seemingly launched from unmanned drones, Amnesty said.

"To a large extent, Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the U.S.A. and paid for with U.S. taxpayers' money," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East director, said in the report.

He called on the United States to immediately suspend military aid to Israel.

The United States is to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel under a 10-year agreement that runs till 2017 - a 25-percent increase compared with the period preceding the Bush administration, Amnesty said.

The group also took to task Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007. It said it found remains of Qassam and Grad rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups in civilian areas.

Grad rockets have a longer range than the crude, home-made Qassams. Israel said Palestinian militants have fired about 10,000 rockets and mortars into Israel in the past eight years.

"These unsophisticated weapons are either smuggled into Gaza clandestinely or constructed there from components secretly brought in from abroad," Amnesty said.

Israel's foreign ministry responded harshly to the report, calling it biased and "dedicated almost exclusively to the censure of Israel."

The ministry said the report does not mention Hamas' "deliberate use" of civilians as human shields. It also said Israel's use of weapons complied with international law and denied that its forces targeted civilians.

"The comparison of the supply of weapons to Israel and the Hamas in inappropriate," the ministry said in a statement. "Israel is a sovereign nation that is obligated to use force to protect its citizens, while Hamas is a terror organization."

Israel launched the attack on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks on southern Israel.

More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were killed in the fighting.

Since the two sides declared a cease-fire on January 21, militants have sporadically fired rockets into Israel. Israel has responded with airstrikes.

(CNN) - The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Monday that it is willing to consider the release of an Israeli soldier who was seized in a cross-border raid more than two years ago.

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured in June 2006.

But the Hamas leadership of Gaza will not release Gilad Shalit as part of a broader cease-fire agreement with Israel, according to a statement released Monday from Hamas political official Raafat Naseef.

Hamas is a fundamentalist Palestinian Islamic group whose military wing has attacked Israel. The United States and Israel consider it a terrorist organization, but it also operates a social services network.

Hamas is in control of Gaza after winning parliamentary elections in 2006, and in 2007, a campaign of violence forced the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas out of Gaza.

The matter of Shalit was one of three issues that Hamas sought to "clarify" its commitment to in the statement.

It said the clarifications were "in light of recent developments which are concurrent with the Cairo dialogues" - a reference to Egypt's attempts to broker a larger, more detailed cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas leadership of Gaza.

Shalit was 19 when he was captured June 25, 2006, by Palestinian militants from Gaza, including those from Hamas.

The militants tunneled into Israel and attacked an Israeli army outpost near the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border, killing two other soldiers in the assault.

Israel immediately launched a military incursion into Gaza to rescue Shalit, but failed.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been under pressure to secure Shalit's release as part of a broader cease-fire deal with Hamas.

Israel temporarily halted its recent three-week military operation in Gaza and declared a unilateral cease-fire that did not include Shalit's release as a condition. Hamas later declared its own unilateral cease-fire.

Earlier this month, Olmert said recent media reports about the negotiations to secure the Shalit's release were "exaggerated and damaging."

Last week, Israel held elections for a new government which the centrist Kadima with just one seat more than the right-wing Likud both parties are now seeking to form a ruling coalition.

The strong showing of other right-wing parties - including Yisrael Beytenu and the Orthodox Shas movement - means Likud has more natural allies.

Liked leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday: "We have a government in our hands, but we want a broader one."

He added that he will negotiate with other parties, including Kadima, "to form a broad national unity government."

"With God's help, I shall head the coming government," he said. "I am sure that I can manage to put together a good, broad-based and stable government that will be able to deal with the security crisis and the economic crisis."

Netanyahu - who served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 - has supported the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank and has opposed making further territorial concessions in hope of ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

CNN's Ben Wedeman and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.

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Listening to President barack Obama's interview on satellite news channel Al-Arabya, I was reminded of something Hisham Melhem – the man who conducted the one-on-one – told me a few weeks: "It is going to be very difficult for Mideast leaders to demonize someone whose full name is Barack Hussein Obama."

Indeed, the tone was conciliatory and President Obama made sure to mention the fact that he'd lived in a Muslim country and that members of his family are Muslim. A hand extended to the region. An "I understand you" from the Commander-in-Chief.

Though in recent polls, a majority of people in the Mideast do not believe anything will change with an Obama presidency, could a softer tone alone be a game-changer?

After eight years of a Bush presidency and an Iraq war that has made virulent anti-Americanism the norm in the Arab world, Barack Obama's statement that he has advised his Mideast envoy George Mitchell to "start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating" is a rhetorical leap that marks a clean break with the past.

But here is the wider question: how to achieve true, lasting peace, without involving all actors of the Mideast tragedy in the discussions?

Mister Obama's peace envoy is in the region right now speaking with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian and Israeli leaders, but will not stop in Syria and will not meet Hamas officials.

The issue here is not whether Hamas is legitimate or popular, but how any deal can hold as a result of negotiations conducted without them.

Since Egypt has acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas in past agreements, it's not inconceivable that messages will somehow be relayed to the group through Cairo.

Would this be like trying to achieve peace in Northern Ireland by not involving the IRA's political wing? It's a question worth asking.

Meanwhile, the process will be slow: president Obama himself has lowered expectations ("it's going to be difficult",) violence is flaring up again in gaza and nothing tangible is expected to happen before Israelis select a new Prime Minister as a result of elections next month.

What are your thoughts on President Obama's interview on Al Arabya?

Thanks to all for commenting!

JERUSALEM (CNN) – Palestinian militants agreed Sunday to a one-week cease-fire against Israel, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said.

The Hamas announcement came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral cease-fire in the country's assault on Hamas in Gaza.

"We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip," Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official in Syria, said on Syrian TV. "And we demand that Israeli forces withdraw in one week and that they open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods for our people in Gaza."

The agreement covers all Palestinian armed factions, not only Hamas, said CNN Jerusalem correspondent Paula Hancocks.

The two sides had continued to skirmish for several hours after Israel said it was stopping its 22-day offensive against Hamas. More than 1,200 people died in the fighting, all but 13 of them Palestinians.

Olmert said Sunday the Israeli offensive had achieved its goals but that the Israel Defense Forces reserved the right to respond to any Palestinian violence against Israelis.

"IDF forces are in the Gaza Strip and many other units, which are surrounding Gaza, from all sides, are closely observing every corner and listening to every whisper, ready for any response that they might receive from their commanders if and when the violations continue, as they have this morning," he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, before the announcement of the Palestinian cease-fire.

Israel pulled some troops out of the Palestinian territory as it called a halt to its operation against Hamas, but others remain.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN they would be there for a matter of days, not weeks.

Earlier Sunday, militants fired 16 rockets into southern Israel and exchanged gunfire with troops in northern Gaza, an Israeli spokesman said.

The Qassam rockets were fired into Sderot at 9 a.m. - seven hours after Israel's cease-fire went into effect. The rockets injured one person, and Israeli aircraft destroyed the rocket launcher soon afterward, an Israeli military spokesman said.

An hour or two before the rocket attacks, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli forces in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. Troops returned fire.

"If Hamas chooses to still launch rockets, we'll answer back and we'll answer back harsh," said Avital Leibovich, spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces Sunday. "It's really up to Hamas. Hamas will be accountable for any launching and every terror activity from the Gaza strip."

Israel also announced Sunday it would open an emergency treatment center at the Erez crossing point from Israel to Gaza for civilians who have been injured in the fighting. It will be "fully equipped and staffed" and Palestinians requiring more involved treatment will be sent to hospitals in Israel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to announce a unilateral ceasefire to end the current gaza offensive,  sources have told CNN.

Israel will retain the right to respond to Hamas rocket attacks, according to a senior Israeli offiicial.

(Developing)

Is the United States starting to show impatience at Israel's offensive in Gaza?

The picture of civilian agony and buildings blown to dust might not be what the U.S. President wants the world to see on his last day in office.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni flew out to Washington tonight for meetings with her counterpart Condoleezza Rice. The goal: to forge a ceasefire deal – inspired by a recent Egyptian proposal – that would satisfy both sides.

The Americans and the Egyptians have been working harder over the last few days to come up with an agreement to stop the fighting.

There are two working days left before the inauguration of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama.

Are we close to a ceasefire?

GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) – An Israeli artillery strike Thursday killed the third most senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Hamas television announced.

Saeed Siam was killed "in the latest shelling on a house" in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, said Al-Aqsa TV, which showed images of a body it identified as Siam.

Siam served as interior minister in the Hamas-led government before it was dissolved in 2007. He ranked behind only former Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and former Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar in Hamas' Gaza hierarchy.

The Israeli military confirmed it targeted a house where Siam was believed to be present.

Hamas vowed to avenge Siam's death.

"His blood will be the fuel for the coming victory," according to a statement on Al-Aqsa TV.

GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) - Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza City from two directions early Tuesday after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on both sides in the conflict to "just stop."

Ban heads to the Middle East today to try to get both sides to adhere to a ceasefire.

The Israeli military reported several clashes between its troops and Hamas fighters and said at least 30 Palestinian combatants were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships struck 60 targets overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"We are tightening the encirclement of the city," Brig. Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Israeli offensive, told a small group of reporters brought in to Gaza to observe the deployment.