Reuters quoted two Egyptian security sources as saying that an Egyptian intelligence delegation arrived in Israel on Saturday to head later to Gaza in order to restore calm, in light of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, which has entered its third day, while the Islamic Jihad movement said that the word is now only for the field.
The two Egyptian sources said that the intelligence delegation is led by Major General Ahmed Abdel-Khaleq, and that he hopes to reach a ceasefire for a day in order to hold talks.
Reuters also quoted an official in the Islamic Jihad Movement that intensive efforts were made on Saturday evening, and that the movement listened to mediators, but he clarified that these efforts have not yet reached an agreement.
The Egyptian intelligence delegation headed to Israel, while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that Egypt is working with its partners to restore peace and stability in the Gaza Strip.
In a speech to the students of the Military College, Sisi affirmed Cairo's keenness to continue its positive role regarding what is happening in the Gaza Strip through its contacts with the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
The Egyptian president added that his country made contacts around the clock to prevent the situation in the Gaza Strip from getting out of control, as he put it.
For its part, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said - in a statement - that it is conducting intensive contacts around the clock to contain the situation in Gaza and work towards calm.
word for field
Sources in Cairo had said that a delegation from the Islamic Jihad movement would visit Egypt to hold talks, but the statements of leaders in the movement ruled out going into the mediation issue now before an appropriate response to the recent occupation operations in Gaza.
In this context, a leader of the Islamic Jihad denied to the island the presence of any delegation of the movement in Cairo to hold talks on the truce and the cease-fire.
The source said that the movement received calls from several parties, but it informed all mediators that its focus is now on the field.
He added that there is no room to talk now about calm, as the priority is to resist the occupation and confront the aggression, stressing the readiness of the Islamic Jihad movement to continue the battle and create what he described as a real state of attrition with the occupation army.
For his part, the official in charge of foreign relations in the Islamic Jihad, Khaled al-Batsh, stressed that there are demands, if they are fulfilled, that this round will end, including the release of al-Saadi.
Al-Batsh said that the movement responded to the Egyptian efforts for calm before the outbreak of the current round of escalation, accusing Israeli officials of employing the aggression on Gaza for political goals.
In turn, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum reported that there are intensive contacts and unremitting efforts from mediators to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Israeli statements
On the other hand, the commander of the Gaza Brigade in the Israeli army, Brigadier-General Nimrod Aloni, said that if the Islamic Jihad stopped its fire, the matter would be behind Israel, as he put it.
Aloni added in an interview with Israeli television that there is one goal, which is to stop the danger that the Islamic Jihad poses to Israel, as he described it.