Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper published in London said officials from Hamas inside Gaza Strip and in Damascus conducted in the recent few days a series of intensive meetings with field commanders from Islamic Jihad Movement and the Popular Resistance Committees and Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in order to reach an agreement on a truce and stop the firing of rockets at the Israeli settlements and towns in order to avoid an Israeli incursion of Gaza Strip. Sources close to Islamic Jihad Movement said the movement welcomed the proposals of Hamas officials in this context and set a condition that the truce must be reciprocal meaning that the Israeli government must also stop the assassinations and shelling operations exercised these days which led to the martyrdom of around 50 persons in the past four weeks only. The same sources said the Egyptian government expressed willingness to mediate with the Israeli side and reach a binding agreement on this. The sources confirmed that Khaled Mash'al, Head of Hamas Politburo, met with Dr. Ramadan Shallah, the Secretary General of Islamic Jihad Movement, last week in the Syrian capital and discussed with him the issue of the truce based on a request from Hamas leadership in Gaza Strip. Dr. Shallah headed a delegation from Islamic Jihad and traveled to Doha in Qatar last Wednesday in the context of efforts exerted by several Palestinian sides to explain the disastrous effects that might result from an Israeli large scale incursion in Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, Palestinian sources revealed to al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper that al-Qaedah Organization started to work actively in Gaza Strip and in areas in the West Bank and is forming cells that include in their ranks groups of young men frustrated from the decrease of rate of resistance operations. The sources affirmed that some of these young men from the military wing of Hamas, especially the martyrdom group, who actually joined cells that adopt ideas and work patterns of al-Qaedah Organization, but it is not known yet if they contacted al-Qaedah command or whether they coordinated these steps with the command or not. The sources didn’t reveal if these cells are planning future operations but warned of clashes between these cells and some of resistance factions similar to what happened in al-Anbar in Iraq.

In the meantime, Hamas showed readiness to hand over to President Abbas the Presidential Headquarters (al-Muntada) and his home in Gaza Strip and then to start a dialogue that can take matters to the original situation and even better. Ahmad Yousef, the political adviser to discharged PM Ismail Hanieh, said: We welcome Abu Mazen in Gaza Strip and we are waiting for him here in his headquarters and in his home; he can come and receive them. We will reach an agreement with him for sure, he is still the legitimate president of everyone and his photos are still in our offices. Yousef said the dialogue between Fatah and Hamas will be postponed until the end of the visit of President Bush to the region. He said: I expect that the coming weeks will not witness the dialogue because of the visit of President Bush to the region because Abu Mazen does not want to sound as if he is rebuilding relations with Hamas because the Americans don’t want return of relations between Fatah and Hamas and they want the split and disagreements to continue. I believe the dialogue will be postponed after the end of Bush visit. Some told us: "give us a chance until the end of Annapolis Conference to see what will emerge" and now we are in the season of Hajj pilgrimage and then there is the Paris Conference on December 17, so it is a period of engagements and it will be difficult to start contacts or talks, and I say that there is more than one party interested in this dialogue cause, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey and maybe other international sides, who have an interest in seeing both sides sitting on the table of negotiations.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on December 9, 2007