President Hosni Mubarak yesterday held an emergency meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis to discuss the continuous Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and means to stop the Israeli massacre against the Palestinians. Following the meeting, Abbas said: “Egypt is currently receiving aid from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and other countries to send to the Gaza Strip. Also an Egyptian medical mission led by Minister of Health Dr. Hatem el-Gabali was sent to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.” He hoped Egypt would succeed in bringing the aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. He added: “We hope we could stop this aggression and a return to the truce,” pointing out that the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Wednesday will discuss all these issues. Abu Mazen also said: “We want this situation controlled because the catastrophe and the massacre that the Palestinian people are subjected to is very serious. We are first and foremost responsible for those people and for every drop of blood that is shed in the Gaza Strip. We are also concerned that the wounded must get medical treatment.” He said Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are willing to receive the wounded Palestinians. Asked what he could do, being the President of the Palestinian Authority, and in light of Hamas refusing the truce, Abbas said: “We as a Palestinian National Authority know that there is a split in the Palestinian arena, but we are first and foremost responsible for the Palestinian people.” On Egypt counting on the emergency Arab summit to end such division, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers is pivotal. Abul-Gheit said: “I imagine they would decide how to stop the Israeli military aggression and how to achieve an agreement on a comprehensive cease-fire once again as happened from June to December 19, 2008. The goal is also to open the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip. If this happens, there will be an Arab position that will be relayed to Israel and Hamas and to the Security Council and the international community. Then we will see how we will implement these actions.” He added: “We have summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo to express our objection to the continuous military operations and to demand the stopping of further invasions of Palestinian territories in Gaza. We also assigned the Egyptian Ambassador in Tel Aviv to contact all Israeli circles to this effect, and we had consultations with the ambassadors of the permanent members of the Security Council to see how the council could act. There are Egyptian efforts to control the situation, and Egypt has warned many times before.” Abbas commented: “I would like to add that since the November 26 meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, we have warned of an imminent danger that we must avoid and remove all the excuses that could be used by Israel, but unfortunately it happened, whereas we could have avoided these massacres.” On the wounded Palestinians unable to cross from Gaza to Egypt, Abul-Gheit said: “We are waiting for them, but they are not allowed to cross. You should ask those in control of Gaza for the reason.” On the possibility of holding dialogue with Hamas, Abu Mazen said: “We spoke very frankly and directly with the leaders of Hamas, and we spoke with them indirectly through Arab and non-Arab mediators. We even talked to them on the phone and told them to push for the truce so as to avoid what happened.”
