While Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are willing to accept an immediate ceasefire on the lines of "quiet will be answered by quiet," Israel is refusing, which is why there is once again massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip after a brief respite Sunday morning, a senior Egyptian intelligence official told Israel Hayom on Sunday.
"The way things look right now, the chances of us bringing about a ceasefire in the next few hours are slim. Right now, there is no contact between the sides and there is real fear that the escalation will increase and develop into another round of war in the Gaza Strip," the official said.
"The fact that delegations from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are still in Cairo is because of the concern that Israel will try to carry out targeted killings of senior Palestinian officials in Gaza.
"We have asked Israel to guarantee that they will not attack the Palestinian officials on their way back to Gaza, and we haven't gotten a response," the official added.
