MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - A Palestinian delegation has decided to continue talks with Israel in Cairo despite the killing of two Palestinians by Israeli forces, a Senior Hamas official said Tuesday.
"After consultations within the Palestinian delegation and brothers in Gaza and abroad it was decided to continue the Cairo meetings," Senior Hamas official Mohammed Zahar told Reuters during a phone interview.
Israel must not be given "any pretext to escape from commitments [of the truce of August 26 that called for talks within a month]," Zahar added.
Israeli officials announced that two Palestinian suspects and members of Hamas, accused of kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teenagers earlier in the summer were killed in an operation carried out by Israeli Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service on Tuesday.
A new escalation of the continuous Israeli-Palestinian conflict started in June this year after Benjamin Netanyahu laid the blame for the death of three Israeli schoolboys on Hamas, a radical Palestinian Islamic organization and the de facto authority in Gaza. In response, Israel launched its operation "Protective Edge."
On August 26 the Palestinian Authority and Israel with the mediation of the Egyptian government agreed to an open-ended truce. The agreement envisaged Israel opening border crossings to allow humanitarian aid and construction materials to enter Gaza Strip, as well as extending the permitted fishing zone. Moreover, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza Strip and Egypt was also to be opened. The parties also agreed to continue talks within a month.
Palestine's Ambassador to Russia Fayed Mustafa told RIA Novosti on Monday that direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to discuss an extension of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would be resumed in Cairo on Tuesday.
