By Xinhua,
Cairo : A Hamas delegation arrived here Saturday evening to hear from the Egyptian side about Israel’s response to a Cairo-mediated ceasefire in the Gaza Strip now under Hamas rule.
The Hamas delegation reached Cairo via the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, said the Egyptian new agency MENA.
According to MENA, Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is scheduled to hold talks with the four-member Hamas delegation led by senior leaders Khalil al-Haya and Jamal Abu Hashem.
Earlier, another Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo from Damascus, Syria for the same purpose.
Egypt has been acting as a mediator between Israel and Gaza militant groups to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel wants Gaza militants to stop rockets attacks on southern Israel in exchange for opening the closed Gaza border crossings. It also insisted that any truce with Gaza militant groups should include the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal who was captured by three Hamas-led militant groups two years ago.
However, Gaza-based Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, has insisted that his movement rejects the Israeli conditions to include Shalit in the truce talks as they are two separated issues.
After Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Strip in June last year, Israel imposed a tightened blockade on Gaza, closed down all the border crossings and branded the coastal enclave a “hostile entity.”