CAIRO (Middle East Eye) – Four hours before the Zionist regime began bombing the Gaza Strip on Friday, Egyptian mediators told the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement that the occupying regime was not looking for an escalation, and would respond “positively” to a request to release two PIJ members from prison. A Zionist cabinet meeting to be held on Sunday would announce this as a breakthrough in negotiations, the movement was reportedly told.
The assurances were conveyed to a senior member of the PIJ’s political bureau by Egyptian mediator Brigadier Ahmed Abdul Khaliq at noon on Friday local time, four hours and twenty minutes before the first Zionist air strike struck the Gaza Strip, sources close to the PIJ told Middle East Eye.
In the first detailed account of the negotiations that preceded the regime’s latest offensive on Gaza, MEE can reveal there is now “considerable anger” towards Egyptian intelligence services from the PIJ over the role played by Cairo in the hours before the occupying regime launched its most recent bombing campaign.
“[The PIJ] believe they have been betrayed by the Egyptians and that they were part of the game - to make them feel relaxed and secure just before the air strikes took place,” a senior Palestinian source close to the PIJ told MEE.
“There is a lot of anger and tension within Islamic Jihad because of the role of [the] Egyptian mediation, because they consider the Egyptians gave them misleading information and hints just before the air strikes. As a result of this information, the Islamic Jihad relaxed and was unprepared for the air strikes.”
Sources close to the PIJ told MEE that Abdul Khaliq incorrectly told Khaled al-Batsh, a senior member of the PIJ’s political bureau, that there had been a “breakthrough” in indirect negotiations.
Zionist agents reportedly passed the following message to the PIJ through Egyptian intelligence: “We want to end this escalation. Give us until Sunday and we are pushing them [the occupying regime’s political leaders] to agree.”
Tensions escalated early last week when Zionist troops arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a senior PIJ commander, in the occupied West Bank.
Saadi was arrested following a Zionist raid in the city of Jenin, during which a Palestinian teenager was killed.
“When the Sheikh [Saadi] was arrested, there was some discussion in Gaza over whether to retaliate. The way he was arrested was humiliating, so that generated some anger. Immediately [the] Egyptians tried to calm the situation,” one source with knowledge of the negotiations told MEE.
“The man doing that was the brigadier. He conveyed messages that the Shin Bet [the regime’s internal spy agency] was not interested in escalation.”
According to one source close to the PIJ, the movement asked Egyptian intelligence, and later obtained, filmed assurances of Saadi’s physical wellbeing.
“This was taken as a good sign,” the PIJ source said.
The PIJ then demanded the release of both Saadi and PIJ prisoner Khalil Awawdah, who has refused food for more than 150 days in a bid to draw attention to his detention by the regime without trial or charge.
Egyptian intelligence had told the PIJ that Shin Bet was “dealing positively” with the requests, and that they were very keen to ease tensions. They also said they were pushing the Zionist cabinet for the release of the two men.