GAZA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking Egyptian security intelligence delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday afternoon and held talks with leaders of Islamic Hamas movement on reaching calm with Israel, officials said.
The five-member Egyptian delegation, which is headed by General Ayman Badea' and includes General Ahmad Abdul Khaleq and Hamam Abu Zeid, arrived in the Gaza Strip through Erez Crossing Point with Israel.
An official Egyptian security intelligence statement sent to the press said that "the visit of the delegation to Gaza comes in the frame of the ongoing Egyptian efforts and the political leadership keenness to restore calm in Gaza."
The statement said that Major General Abbas Kamel, the Egyptian minister chief of the security intelligence, "sent the delegation to the Palestinian territories and to Israel to work closely on calming the situation."
The statement went on saying that "the visit aims at contribution to speeding up reachi internal reconciliation (between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party)."
"The efforts of the delegation aim at ensuring a proper atmosphere for the international community to fulfill its pledges towards improving the living situation of the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip," said the statement.
On Wednesday, Israeli war jets attacked 20 targets that belong to militant groups in the Gaza Strip in response to firing a rocket from the enclave into southern Israel, causing destruction to several Israeli houses.
In one of the airstrikes on northern Gaza Strip, a 25-year-old Palestinian man was killed and three were injured.
Well-informed Palestinian sources close to Hamas in Gaza said that intensive contacts conducted by Egypt and the United Nations on Wednesday prevented a fourth large-scale Israeli war that was going to be waged on the Gaza Strip.
