CAIRO: Palestinian groups were in Cairo on Tuesday for Egyptian-mediated talks on a possible truce with Israel that has already been approved by the Islamist Hamas.
The Palestinian factions traveled from Gaza, Damascus and Amman for two days of talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of mediating Palestinian-Israeli talks.
Egypt has been serving as a go-between in truce negotiations as Israel refuses any direct contacts with organizations it considers terror groups.
Meetings with Suleiman are set to begin at 6 pm, Rabah Mohanna, from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told AFP.
Other factions include the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Struggle Front (PSF) and Islamic Jihad, which fires most of Gaza s rockets at Israel.
The truce talks are taking place against a background of ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip where four children and their mother were killed in an explosion on Monday.
Palestinian witnesses blamed it on an Israeli missile, countering the Israeli army s statement that the blast was caused when explosives carried by Palestinian insurgents detonated during the air strike.
On the same day, Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza damaged an Israeli house.
Senior Hamas leader and former Prime Minister Ismail Haniya described the massacre as part of Israel s constant attempts to destroy any regional or international effort to lift the siege and end the violence.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that this aggression does not serve the efforts being exerted to bring about a period of calm and hinders the peace process.
Following the killings, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel deeply regrets that civilians not involved [in the violence] are affected.
Hamas last week told the Egyptians it would be ready to accept a truce first in the Gaza Strip, to be followed six months later in the West Bank.
Israel has expressed doubts about Hamas s intentions but said it would consider a truce if Hamas stopped firing rockets at Israeli territory and attacking border positions.
Abbas was in Egypt on Sunday and gave his unconditional support to Egypt s efforts, asking the Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Nabil Amr, to monitor the talks on behalf of his Fatah movement.
Hamas violently kicked out Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip in June. All Palestinian organizations are taking part in the talks, without exception, Amr told AFP.
We hope that our Egyptian brothers determination will contribute to a common Palestinian position concerning the truce and thus put pressure on Israel to accept the truce and lift the blockade, Amr said.
Israel allows only limited basic supplies into the Gaza Strip in an embargo it says aims at forcing insurgents to halt their almost daily rocket fire against the Jewish state.
