JERUSALEM/CAIRO — Jerusalem awoke yesterday to a blanket of around five centimeters (two inches) of snow, as the region faced a second rare cold front in less than a month, officials said. Despite initial fears that the snow would cause major disruption, traffic, schools and public offices in Jerusalem opened after snowplows cleared most streets in the holy city.

Thick snowflakes settled on the walls surrounding the old city and covered the golden Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa compound. Ultra-Orthodox Jews with plastic bags covering their tall black hats scurried through the streets of Jerusalem, which were uncommonly traffic-free at rush hour.

Snow also fell in the West Bank towns of Hebron and Bethlehem on the West Bank, and schools were closed there for the day. It also snowed in northern Israel and in some elevated areas of the Negev desert in the south of the country. The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, was hit by heavy rain.

Meanwhile, Hamas officials were holding talks with Egyptian security officials yesterday in a fresh bid to reopen the border with the impoverished Gaza Strip, a security source said. Ayman Abu Tahar and Tarek Abu Hashem met the Egyptians at the Rafah border, which was blown open by militants on Jan. 23, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flood into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies.

“They are here to discuss the reopening of the Rafah border,” the source told AFP. The border — Gaza’s only door to the outside world that bypasses Israel — was open for almost two weeks until it was sealed by Egyptian forces and Hamas on Feb. 3.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says a 2005 deal he reached with Israel when his Palestinian Authority still controlled Gaza still stands. Under that agreement, the Rafah crossing was to be overseen by European Union monitors with cameras enabling round-the-clock surveillance by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas were due to meet today in a bid to advance peace talks amid a dispute over the thorny issue of Jerusalem. Less than three months after relaunching the peace process at a US conference with a commitment to try to ink a deal by the end of 2008, the negotiations appear to be stalled and violence has been on the rise in Gaza.

Top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in January began talks on the “core issues” at the heart of the Middle East conflict — including Jerusalem, borders and refugees — but have still failed to agree on procedure.

Olmert drew criticism from the Palestinians for saying on Sunday that Jerusalem would be tackled last. “Jerusalem will be the last issue to be negotiated,” Olmert said. “It has been agreed, discussed and accepted between me and the president of the Palestinian Authority.”

The Palestinian prime minister told a group of American Jewish leaders yesterday negotiations are making little progress and a peace agreement won’t be possible by the end of the year if the pace isn’t quickened. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad delivered the prognosis ahead of a meeting later between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“My own sense ... is that not enough has happened over the past nearly three months that could suggest to me that a treaty per se is going to be possible” by the end of 2008, Fayyad told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “The pace has to be stepped up significantly,” Fayyad said.

At a separate gathering, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the lead Israeli peace negotiator, said “the passage of time” is not in Israel’s favor.

“Whoever thinks stopping negotiations will stop terror is not in touch with reality,” Livni told the Jerusalem Conference. But Israel “will not be any part of the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem,” she said.