Egyptian delegation meets Hamas in Gaza over calm with Israel

Gaza, March 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Egyptian security delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to hold talks with the leadership of Islamic Hamas movement, a security official in Gaza said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the delegation came from the West Bank and arrived in the coastal enclave through Erez crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel.

He said the Egyptian delegation will meet with leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions over the issues of calm with Israel and the internal Palestinian reconciliation.

Last November, Egypt and the United Nations brokered a calm understanding between Israel and Hamas-led factions, aiming at achieving cease-fire on the border between Gaza and Israel.

Israel Radio quoted a Hamas source as saying the Islamic movement demanded 20 million U.S. dollars to pay its employees' salaries in exchange for cease-fire on the border.

But Israel violated the calm understanding, thus ruling out the entry into the second phase of the deal, the source added.

The Egyptian-brokered understanding was intended to decrease tension and violence on the border resulting from the Palestinian protests, better known as the Great March of Return rally, which started in late March last year.

The anti-Israel protests have been organized weekly to pressure Israel to end or ease more than 12 years of blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Health Ministry in Gaza said the Israeli army has shot and killed 260 Palestinians and wounded more than 26,000 others since the beginning of the rally.