Gaza City–Hamas called a meeting of Palestinian factions overnight as tension rises along the border with Israel, a source told AFP Wednesday.
Tensions have been rising on Gaza’s border over retaliatory and often deadly Israeli air raids and continued Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.
At the Tuesday night meeting, which included all the main Palestinian factions barring Fatah, “the factions discussed the question of rocket fire and not providing the Israeli occupation with a pretext for increasing its aggression,” a source with knowledge of the meeting told AFP. “There was a consensus on the need to coordinate a response to the aggression,” the source said, without providing additional detail.
Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP the meeting “discussed the growing Zionist threats to launch a new war against the Gaza Strip and we agreed the Palestinian people have the right to resistance to defend themselves.”
The Israeli military killed a Palestinian fighter and wounded five other people east of Khan Yunis in Gaza Tuesday.
The renewed tensions come just two years after Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead” in response to rocket fire from Gaza. The war, ended by a January 2009 ceasefire, killed 1400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis.
Israeli Army chief of staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said Monday his troops were ready for a new confrontation if it became necessary
