The new Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet was holding its first regular meeting after its foreign minister made an unprecedented Middle East peace overture in a letter to UN chief Kofi Annan.
The letter by Mahmud al-Zahar, which referred to a ‘two-state solution’, was expected to dominate discussions in Gaza City among the new ministers, many of whom participated via videolink as a result of an Israeli-imposed travel ban.
Zahar refused to comment to reporters as he entered the meeting. His fellow ministers also remained tight-lipped.
Alvaro de Soto, the UN's special envoy for the Middle East, confirmed Annan had received a letter from Zahar.
‘We only received the letter at headquarters yesterday and we are still studying it so I have no comment,’ he told reporters in Jerusalem.
In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Zahar said the new Islamist government was ‘looking for freedom and independence side-by-side with our neighbours’.
‘We look forward to living in peace and security, as all countries in the world, and that our people enjoy freedom and independence side-by-side with all our neighbours in this holy place,’ the text added.
The language was similar to an internationally-backed roadmap peace plan which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Hamas, behind dozens of anti-Israeli suicide bombings in the course of a five-year uprising, is committed in its charter to the destruction of Israel.
Zahar's letter stopped short of formally endorsing a two-state solution but for the first time appeared to implicitly recognise Israel's right to exist.
‘Israeli procedures in the occupied territories will put an end to all hopes to reach a final settlement based on the two-state solution,’ it said.
The foreign ministry issued a statement to the local media confirming that Zahar sent a letter to Annan but making no mention of the phrase the ‘two-state solution’ nor the term ‘side-by-side with our neighbours.’
Initial reaction from the Israeli government was cool.
‘In this letter, the Palestinian foreign minister talks about cooperation and peace in the region, but unfortunately he talks of the region without Israel,’ foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. ‘In no part of this letter does he mention the existence of Israel.’
The letter also appeared to have caught the wider Palestinian leadership off its guard.
Although Hamas now leads the government in the West Bank and Gaza, peace negotiations are meant to be the remit of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) chaired by the moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that he was unaware of the letter and unable to comment.
Hamas's victory in January's Palestinian election over Abbas's formerly dominant Fatah faction and subsequent entry into government last week has led to a complete freezing in contacts with Israel.
Israel has said that it will not deal with an organisation which rejects its right to exist and continues to advocate violence.
The European Union and United States have threatened to slash aid to the already cash-strapped Palestinian Authority unless there is a radical change in the platform of Hamas, which is considered by both as a terrorist organisation.
Although Hamas has insisted it will not be ‘blackmailed’ by the West, efforts to draw alternative funding have so far failed to bear fruit.
Last week's summit in Sudan of the Arab League -- which counts some of the world's richest countries among its members -- did not accede to Palestinian requests for a funding boost.
Israel has also frozen its payments of customs duties that it traditionally collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Its acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is planning to fix the Jewish state's permanent borders on a unilateral basis in the continued absence of what he regards as a partner in the peace process.
Olmert's Kadima party won an election last week and is stitching together a new coalition.
Former Israeli premier Shimon Peres, a leading member of Kadima, reiterated that Israel wanted a negotiated settlement but without much hope.
‘It will be difficult to conduct peace talks with Hamas, a religious organisation which does not appreciate international realities,’ he said.