A spokesman of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced late Friday that a new Gaza cease-fire had been reached following the fierce fighting between rival Hamas and Fatah gunmen which left at least 11 dead on the day.
According to the website of the Jerusalem Post, the agreement was announced after a meeting between the two factions at the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City.
"We, the leaders of the two groups, agreed with God's help on a cease-fire," Nizar Rayan, a regional Hamas leader, told reporters after the meeting, "The concrete measures to be taken will be discussed in the next few hours."
A Fatah spokesman Abdel Hakim Awad, in the meantime, confirmed agreement has been reached in principle.
However, both sides said they need more meetings to work out the mechanism for reviving the cease-fire reached early Tuesday.
The current round of violence began with a fierce midnight shootout at Gaza's Islamic University and followed Thursday's clashes between Hamas and Fatah.
The two days of infighting have left at least 20 people dead and more than 220 others wounded, the fiercest infighting seen in Gaza since Hamas came to power one year ago.
Egyptian officials said Hamas broke the truce agreed early Tuesday by attacking several trucks belonging to Abbas' Fatah movement on Thursday, while Hamas officials accused the trucks of carrying weapons from Egypt into Gaza Strip, the charge was denied later both by Egypt and Fatah movement.
Periodic clashes between the rival factions have been persisted for months, with several truces breaking down. The latest went into effect on Tuesday, after five days of fighting that left some dozens of casualties and disrupted efforts to form a unity government.
Earlier, media reports said that Palestinian Authority President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal would meet in Saudi Arabia next Tuesday to try to end the fighting.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2007)
