BICOM

A meeting took place in Gaza last night between senior Hamas officials and leaders of Palestinian paramilitary organisations engaged in rocket attacks on Israel. The meeting was held at the request of Hamas, which has been exerting pressure on the smaller organisations to cease the attacks, so as to avoid a major Israeli operation into Hamas ruled Gaza. Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and senior official Khalil al-Hayeh represented the Gaza Hamas authorities at the talks. Following the meeting, Mahmoud al-Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad official, said that Islamic Jihad had agreed to stop firing rockets and mortars into Israel. He said that the movement retained the right to launch ‘resistance attacks’ to prevent an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad is the main organisation that has been engaged in attacks on Israel in the recent period. A number of smaller factions have also agreed to stop rocket attacks. According to media reports, Hamas’s efforts to preserve the calm derive from Egyptian warnings of a possible Israeli operation into Gaza, and Cairo’s anger at the continued attacks.