Israel`s Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh held talks with a senior Palestinian official in the Gaza Strip for the first time since violence broke out nearly two months ago, officials on both sides said. The one-hour meeting on Thursday, between Sneh and Tayeb Abdel Rahim, the Secretary General of the Palestinian authority, focussed on how to implement the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings as soon as possible, a high-ranking Palestinian official told AFP. An agreement to take steps to end the violence was reached between Palestinians and Israelis in the Egyptian Sea Resort town on October 17, but fighting continued nonetheless. Thursday`s meeting between Sneh and Rahim was held at the Erez Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, where a gunbattle earlier on Thursday left one Israeli soldier dead. A second Israeli soldier died on Thursday in an explosion at a Palestinian-Israeli liaison office near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, prompting the army to order a closure of all eight such offices which have for years served as a security bridge between the two sides. The talks came just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak went into an emergency security cabinet meeting to decide on how to respond to a deadly car bomb attack on Wednesday in the northern Israeli city of Hadera. The explosion left two Israelis dead and 55 others wounded, several critically. Bureau Report