Gaza leader met Egypt intel chief several times: Hamas

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader in Gaza, held several meetings with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel during a recent visit to Cairo, the Gaza-based resistance group said Thursday.

According to a Hamas statement, Sinwar and members of an accompanying delegation, who returned to Gaza from Cairo on Wednesday, had discussed means of halting Israeli aggression on Gaza with Egyptian officials.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Israeli army pounded the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery, while resistance factions -- led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- responded by firing rockets into southern Israel.

The violence ended at dawn Monday, when a ceasefire, the exact terms of which remain unclear until now, went into effect.

At least 27 Palestinians were killed in the exchange and scores more injured, while four Israelis were killed, according to Israeli media reports.

“The meetings [in Cairo] also tackled proposals for breaking Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip,” the Hamas statement read.

Means of healing the 12-year rift between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah were also on the agenda of talks, it added.

Delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad returned to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening following an almost weeklong visit to Cairo.

For the last several months, Egyptian, Qatari and UN delegations have shuttled between Gaza City and Israel in hopes of mediating a truce between the latter and Gaza-based resistance factions.