GAZA, 12 February 2005 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Gaza yesterday evening and immediately held meetings with Palestinian security chiefs and a senior security Egyptian delegation headed by Gen. Mustafa Al-Beheiri.
Official sources closed to Abbas said he intended to stay several days to continue a dialogue with Palestinian factions, militant groups and security chiefs aiming at reinforcing a cease-fire with Israel.
Senior Palestinian official Tayeb Abdel Rahim told reporters after the meeting that Abbas would meet today with Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements’ representatives and tomorrow with other factions.
He said Abbas discussed with the Egyptian delegation training Palestinian police officers in Egypt, and the results the delegation achieved in its meetings with different political groups since its arrival in Gaza on Sunday.
Israel, meanwhile, decided not to respond to a series of mortar attacks on settlers in the Gaza Strip, a senior adviser to Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon said.
“We will refrain from military activity and we will give Abu Mazen (Abbas) time to take steps,” Raanan Gissin told reporters.
He spoke after an upsurge of violence in the Gaza Strip threatened the cease-fire which Sharon and Abbas declared at Tuesday’s summit in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Hamas movement activists fired 41 mortar shells and rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip Thursday. They caused no casualties, but damaged some houses and greenhouses.
Hamas said they avenged the killing of a Palestinian in southern Gaza Wednesday. Israeli soldiers said they shot the 20-year-old after he entered an off-limit security zone and ignored warning shots.
The movement reacted defiantly to Abbas’ and Sharon’s cease-fire announcement Tuesday, saying it would not observe it unless Israel fulfilled its conditions, notably the release of all Palestinian activists in its jails.
Abbas dismissed three Palestinian security chiefs and declared a state of emergency in his Fatah party and in the Palestinian security forces Thursday, following the stepped-up attacks in Gaza.
He convened an emergency meeting of the Fatah central committee Thursday to discuss the shelling, which a statement issued after the meeting slammed as “security violations” and “attempts to give the Israel occupation the excuse to escape its commitments agreed on in Sharm El-Sheikh”.
Abbas also sent letters to Hamas and several other factions, urging them to halt the mortar attacks and commit to the cease-fire. “President Abbas is determined to settle the security situation in Gaza by bringing Palestinian militant groups to a clear, signed cease-fire agreement,” an official close to Abbas said.
— Additional input from agencies
