By Ola Attalah
GAZA CITY
A joint delegation from Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Monday left the Gaza Strip for Cairo to participate in indirect talks with Israel on a permanent cease-fire agreement.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said indirect negotiations between the two sides this week would focus on drawing up a timeline for cease-fire negotiations, as well as the agenda of talks.
He added that negotiations would officially commence under Egyptian mediation following the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday and Jewish Yom Kippur celebrations early next month.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators signed a cease-fire deal in Cairo on August 26 after indirect talks that lasted several days.
The cease-fire ended a 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip by Israel in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed and some 11,000 injured.
Around 72 Israelis – including 68 army troops – were also killed over the same period, according to Israeli data, while 2,522 Israelis, including 740 troops, were injured.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Egypt planned to host what it described as a fresh round of "exploratory" indirect talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators.
"This round represents a new episode of continual consultations on fixing Gaza's cease-fire," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the indirect talks would be preceded on Monday by meetings among Palestinian factions to discuss inter-Palestinian reconciliation and coordination in advance of the cease-fire talks with Israel.
Tensions have mounted recently between leading Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, the latter of which is led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The tensions come in spite of a June reconciliation deal that produced a unity government headed by West Bank-based Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdullah.
The unity government has yet to assume political control over the Gaza Strip.
Both factions, meanwhile, continue to accuse each other of attempting to sabotage a reconciliation deal signed this summer.
The deal ended seven years of rift between the two factions, which had led to the establishment of two separate seats of government – Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza – after the latter routed troops loyal to Abbas in 2007 and assumed political control of the Gaza Strip.
www.aa.com.tr/en
