Abbas arrives for a meeting with Yassin at his house in Gaza city

By Mustafa al-Sawwaf, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, July 6 (IslamOnline.net) - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas met on Saturday night, July 5, for the first time since he assumed office with the spiritual leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas group, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, at the latter's home in Gaza city, a senior Palestinian official said.

Both leaders, however, did not make any press statements, but senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told IslamOnline.net that the visit was aimed at "getting reassured about Yassin's health, who suffered indisposition few days ago."

Haniyeh further said that it was not a meeting, given that there was no political agenda.

He said that the deplorable conditions of the Palestinian people, particularly the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, "are tackled in all meetings, official or unofficial."

Haniyeh said that the issue of prisoners comes first and foremost in Hamas's political agenda, noting it was among other conditions made by Palestinian factions to accept a truce with Israel.

On June 29, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad called an immediate stop to all military activities against the occupation for three months.

They said their commitment to this one-sided truce is conditioned on three steps that should be taken by the Israeli government.

"There should be an immediate end to all forms of aggressions against Palestinians, including house demolitions, land razzings, assassinations, detentions and deportations," they said in a statement.

The two groups also hinged their initiative on "setting free all of the detainees in Israeli jails, and halting any tampering with Islamic and Christian sacred places in general and Haram al-Shariff in particular."

'Normal'

On the relation between Abbas's cabinet and Hamas, Haniyeh described it as "normal and not tense."

"We all now focus on setting free all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and stopping the brazen Israeli aggression on our people," he added.

The ranking Hamas leader did not set a date for a new meeting between Hamas and the Palestinian government.

Abbas was accompanied by Minister of Culture and the official in charge of inter-Palestinian dialogue Ziyad Abu Amr.

On Tuesday, July 1, Abbas met with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon, asserting that peace could only be materialized by giving the Palestinians their national rights.

There has been a marked drop in anti-Israeli attacks since the main Palestinian resistance groups agreed to the truce.

The truce declaration coincided with an Israeli pull-out of the northern Gaza Strip and the transferring of security responsibilities to the Palestinians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

However, senior officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (IJ) groups dismissed as "not enough and not real" the Israeli pullout of the northern Gaza Strip.

Echoing the same feelings, local inhabitants reacted halfheartedly towards the Bethlehem step as "insincere" and "sham".

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is to meet Sunday, July 6, to discuss the issue of freeing Palestinian prisoners.

The talks are to focus on a list of up to 200 prisoners drawn up by Israel's domestic security service, Shin Bet.

The government's legal advisor Elyakim Rubinstein asked that the list be published 48 hours before the prisoners are freed, Israeli public radio reported.

The issue is also likely to be discussed Sunday by Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at a meeting which is also expected to cover further Israeli pullouts from reoccupied Palestinian areas.