Negotiators from Hamas and Fatah movements reached a new cease-fire deal Saturday, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. According to the AP, the agreement was worked out in a meeting at the Egyptian Embassy in Gaza, said the official.
Previous agreements reached in the past week of deadly factional fighting quickly collapsed. However, both sides pledged to pull their fighters off the streets and to exchange hostages later Saturday.
Earlier, Israel's defense minister warned that Israel will not let up in its strikes against Hamas and that those firing rockets on Israeli border towns should be "very afraid." But Amir Peretz also said the time is not right for a major ground offensive in Gaza.
Peretz insisted Israel is not interfering in the internal fighting. However, he also said that "we certainly would like the moderate forces to emerge with the upper hand," a reference to Fatah.
Shortly after Peretz spoke on Israel Radio, an Israeli aircraft fired missiles toward a rocket squad near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the army said. Hospital officials said two Palestinians died and four were wounded in the strike. Earlier Saturday, missile strikes demolished two suspected Hamas metal workshops.
Saturday's deaths brought to 22 the number of Palestinians killed in air strikes in the past week.
In Gaza City, Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashed near the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold, and two Fatah fighters were injured.
Abbas spoke late Friday to the supreme Hamas leader, Damascus-based Khaled Mashaal, who urged senior Hamas and Fatah officials to meet.
