Palestinian factions have agreed to de-escalate the situation in the Gaza Strip, while two factions had reservations on the agreement during a meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the Egyptian government said in a statement Wednesday, dpa reported.
According to the statement, the two-day talks held by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman with 12 Palestinian factions arrived at an agreement about a comprehensive, mutual and gradual de- escalation starting in the Gaza Strip then moving to the West Bank.
The statement added that the Palestinian consensus comes as part of a larger plan that aims at lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza and ultimately ending Palestinian divisions.
However, the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees had reservations about the agreement, stating that tension should be defused in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank at the same time.
Nafez Azzam, a member of Islamic Jihad, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa that the faction's reservations focused on excluding the West Bank in the first stage of the plan in addition to the lack of any guarantees that Israel would abide by the de-escalation agreement.
Azzam also added that Islamic Jihad had reservations with regard to the closed borders issue. However, the faction eventually agreed on the plan, in order to to lift the suffering of the Palestinians, he said.
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu-Mujahid, told dpa that despite having some reservations, the faction has approved the agreement to allow a chance for Egypt to mediate and to implement the de-escalation.
The Egyptian-Palestinian talks started in the early hours of Tuesday with a presentation of Egypt's recommended plan to de-escalate the situation and an exchange of views by Palestinian factions, Addnan al-Baba, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, said.
He added that the Egyptian side promised to exert efforts to include the West Bank in the first stage of the de-escalation plan and to have an Israeli promise not to breach the agreement
As part of Egypt's mediation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak met on Thursday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and discussed the importance of Palestinian- Palestinian dialogue.