Palestinian groups are to meet over this weekend in Cairo to discuss ending attacks inside Israel, officials from Fatah said, according to AP.
A Fatah delegation is to demand from Hamas that they restrict their attacks to Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, instead of all Israelis, a senior Fatah official said.
"This is a very important meeting and we are looking forward to making it successful," said Ahmed Ghneim, who leads Fatah delegation. "I am optimistic and I think that we can reach an agreement with Hamas."
Hamas
Meanwhile, in response to statements made by the head of the Israeli national security council, Ephraim Halevy, in which he advocated dialogue between Hamas and Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced Saturday its complete rejection to dialogue with Israel.
“The movement decisively rejects dialogue with what is ‘called’ Israel because we in the movement have not and will not recognize this state,” prominent Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz al Rantisi, told Albawaba.com. He added, “they are angry but we will not hold a dialogue with them.”
Halevy, former head of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) expressed his support for a future dialogue between Israel and Hamas. Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot quoted Halevy as saying, “in case we achieve any progress in future with the Palestinians towards an agreement, we will not be able to rule out Hamas.”
“It might be too early to talk to Hamas because it is impossible to make dialogue with them while they are sending suicide bombers,” said Halevy adding “perhaps this can be done in future if Hamas becomes convinced of our willingness to talk to them and so halt the suicide bombing operations.”
On the talks with Fatah, Rantisi told Albawaba.com “there is no fixed agenda for the planned talks with the Authority. These are supposed to be an open dialogue that will address all the issues of interest for both sides and the Palestinian people.” He added that Hamas delegation would be headed by the movement’s politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouq.
Hamas leader confirmed that Cairo played a major role in getting the two sides to agree on the meetings, adding that the outcome of these contacts would depend on the intentions of the Palestinian Authority. (Albawaba.com)
