Islamic Jihad leaders to visit Cairo later Thursday

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Leading members of Gaza-based resistance group Islamic Jihad will head to Cairo today to discuss a proposed truce with Israel and prospects for inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

Group leader Nafz Azzam told Anadolu Agency that the delegation would set out from Gaza later Thursday.

He did not provide further details, including the expected duration of the visit.

The visit comes amid mounting tensions in Gaza following a spate of Israeli airstrikes against positions affiliated with resistance faction Hamas, which has run the blockaded coastal territory since 2007.

On Wednesday, Israeli warplanes conducted two airstrikes in Gaza in ostensible retaliation for the continued launch of incendiary balloons from the territory.

For the last year, Palestinian activists have been flying burning kites and balloons into Israeli territory as part of ongoing anti-occupation demonstrations along the fraught Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

According to Israeli officials, these improvised aerial weapons have caused several fires inside Israeli settlements located near the buffer zone, resulting in some material damage but not causing any deaths or injuries.

Since March of last year, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army gunfire -- and thousands more injured -- while taking part in ongoing demonstrations near the buffer zone.

Protesters demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.