Axios news website reported - today, Friday - that Egyptian, Qatari and UN officials have made contacts with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Israel, to try to calm tension on the border with the Gaza Strip.
The American website added that "after the raids on Gaza, Israel sent messages to Hamas through a number of mediators, to avoid further escalation."
And the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported, citing a security source, that "Israel is striving to keep Hamas out of the conflict."
For its part, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation announced that Israel had sent messages to Egypt and other parties, that the target was the Islamic Jihad movement.
A spokesman for the Jihad Movement told Al-Jazeera that "contacts took place with Egyptian officials an hour before the bombing and the responses were positive," adding that the assassination of the leader, Tayseer Al-Jabari, came to obstruct the Egyptian efforts and endeavors to end the state of tension.
Al-Jihad declared that the enemy bears full responsibility for the crime, and that it will not tolerate in responding to the aggression that represents a declaration of war.
In this regard, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that what happened today is an aggression against Gaza, and it reveals the intention of the occupation.
Prepared a few days ago
Yesterday, Thursday, Israeli media said that "the state of alert will continue in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, so that many axes and roads remain closed to traffic."
She added that "the trains will not resume between Ashkelon and Sderot."
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation stated that these measures come "in anticipation of the Islamic Jihad movement firing rockets at Israel or attacks against soldiers and civilians along the security fence, in response to the arrest of the movement's leader, Bassam al-Saadi, and dozens of its members in the West Bank."
"Since the beginning of the week, dozens of army drones have been patrolling the skies over Gaza, collecting intelligence and attacking anti-tank teams and rocket launchers," the official Kan channel indicated.
Jihad vows
Last Wednesday, Islamic Jihad called on Israel to "immediately" release the leader Bassam al-Saadi, who was arrested by the occupation last week in the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, while its military wing vowed to "respond" to his arrest.
Earlier on Tuesday, Khader Habib, a leader in the movement in Gaza, said that "the arrest of Al-Saadi and the assault on him will not go unpunished."