GAZA CITY, November 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli army barred a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction from leaving the Gaza Strip Saturday to attend a Cairo meeting with members of the resistance Islamic movement Hamas, Palestinian security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It was not clear why the man, identified as Samir al-Mashrawi, was not allowed to go, the sources said. The army could not immediately confirm the information.

A five-member Fatah delegation is slated to meet with Hamas representatives Sunday to discuss, among other things, putting an end to the group's bomb attacks inside Israel, a Palestinian official said earlier this week.

National unity, the participation of Hamas in upcoming general elections and other political issues will also be discussed, said the source on condition of anonymity.

The head of Hamas' political bureau in Syria, Khaled Meshaal, will participate in the meeting as well as other leaders in exile, the sources said.

Speaking to the Qatari Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, Al Mashrawi said that it was only natural for Israel to bar him from traveling. “Israel wants to abort any Hamas-Fatah attempts for a national unity,” he said.

Hamas has claimed the majority of bomb attacks carried out in Israel ever since the beginning of the 25-month-old Palestinian uprising.

The political wing of Fatah, in contrast to its military offshoot, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, believes that the attacks do not serve the Palestinian national interest, as they cause civilian casualties and are condemned by the international community, said AFP.

Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz said that Mussa abu-Marzouq, a member of the Hamas diplomatic cabinet, said several days ago that the meeting had been initiated by the Palestinain Authority, in order to, "unite the Palestinian nation and to solve all the problems that come up."

According to the paper, Marzouq said that he hoped that the PA did not request that Hamas stop the terror attacks against Israel, and stressed that it was important to fight Israeli aggression and to release the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Ever since the start of the Intifada, there has been a consensus among the resistance Palestinian factions that the Oslo Agreement has failed to meet the hopes of the Palestinian people of ending the occupation through peace agreements. This has led to the Intifada taking a military road, which the PA condemns yet secretly endorses, said Ahmad Sidqui Al Dajani, a Palestinian analyst.

Al Dajani said that after the world’s condemnation of the martyr operations which take place inside the green line (that is, the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948), there was a split among the Palestinian factions. “Some of them such as Fatah, agreed to limit the operations to the 1967 lands and the others such as Hamas, felt that they have the right to attack the enemy vigorously in the 1948 lands,” he said.

Speaking to IslamOnline Meshal said that aranging for the Palestinian home tops the agenda of the Cairo-hosted dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.

Only Cairo can sponsor such a dialogue, due to kick off later Saturday, he asserted.

"The Cairo dialogue this time is not to end the Palestinian Intifada or armed operations, but to discuss the conditions of the Palestinians, especially with the gap between powers and different trends widening," Meshal stressed.

"Previous dialogues between Hams and Fatah always spotlighted areas of understandings to be agreed on and abided by, although each side remained committed to its own convictions," he added.

On the timing of martyrdom operations and its impact on the negotiation process, Meshal made it clear that no politician can control the timing of such operations.

"We do not have an army to give orders to cease fire, we resist very difficult conditions with groups, demanding protection of their own security to secure infiltrations and be able to hit the enemy," he added.

"It hinges on the mujahedein and their circumstances, because they try to reach enemy targets via security checkpoints, chase squads, moles and inspections," Meshal elaborated.

Early on Saturday, Israeli troops killed a Jenin chief of the armed branch of the resistance group Jihad, according to Palestinian and Israeli security sources.

Iyad Swalha, 32, was killed during a battle that lasted an hour after Israeli occupation soldiers surrounded the house he was in, the Palestinian sources said, reported AFP.

Sawalha's mother and sister were detained Friday, November 8, by the Shin Bet security services when several Israeli jeeps arrived at the family's home in the West Bank village of Ra'i, near Jenin, and arrested 55-year-old Najayah and 26-year-old Arpeline, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

Israel uses terms like “arrest”, “suspected terrorists”, in reference to its military operations against the Palestinians.