Palestinian leaders contact mediators to stop Israel attacks

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders Khaled Mishaal and Ismail Haniyah have conducted on Saturday intensive contacts with regional and international mediators in order to stop the Israeli military aggression on Gaza Strip. In phone calls with officials of Egypt, the European Union and the International Quartet on the Middle East peace, President Abbas called for immediate halt to the aggression, the Palestine News Agency (WAFA) reported. "President Abbas has also phoned chairman of the politburo of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khaled Mishaal and Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadhan Shallah," it added. The leaders of the two Palestinian groups stated commitment to the truce deal, reached with the Israeli occupation authorities before, and keenness to deescalate the confrontation with the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyah, prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza, made similar contacts with regional mediators. "It's a top priority for the (Hamas) government to protect the steadfast Palestinian people from a full-scale Israeli aggression," Haniyah said in a brief press release. He held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the results of the armed confrontation triggered by the Israeli air raid on Palestinian faction leader Saturday.