Abbas to visit Egypt for Gaza ceasefire talks
According to Abu Rudeinah, Abbas will also visit Turkey on July 18 for ceasefire talks.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Egypt on Wednesday for talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Gaza-based Palestinian resistance factions and Israel.
Abbas will meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to discuss means of "ensuring the success of an Egyptian ceasefire proposal so as to preserve the lives of our people and cement the truce," Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah said in a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency.
According to Abu Rudeinah, Abbas will also visit Turkey on July 18 for ceasefire talks.
Egypt had earlier proposed a ceasefire between Gaza-based resistance factions and Israel to come into effect at 6am GMT on Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel's security cabinet accepted the proposal, while deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq said his group was still mulling the initiative after having initially rejected it.
Cairo's initiative calls on Israel to cease all hostilities in the Gaza Strip, halt all ground operations and refrain from targeting civilians, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement.
It also calls on Gaza-based resistance factions to cease hostilities against Israel, halt rocket fire and cross-border attacks and stop targeting civilians.
The overture further calls for reopening Gaza's closed border crossings and facilitating the movement of persons and goods in and out of the embattled coastal strip.
At least 194 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1400 injured in unrelenting Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday of last week.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities in response to ongoing Israeli bombardments.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far as a result of rocket fire from Gaza.
By Anees Barghouthy
englishnews@aa.com.tr
