The Egypt-sponsored indirect dialogue on reinforcing a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, which is due to resume on Monday, has been postponed, a senior official said on Sunday.
Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader from Gaza, said in an e-mailed press statement that Egypt has postponed the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian factions until a further notice due to the security situation in Egypt's Sinai.
He declined to give more details, but said that talks on restoring calm and cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, building a seaport and an airport, as well as on the process of Gaza reconstruction, were scheduled to start in Cairo on Monday.
Earlier on Friday, 30 Egyptian soldiers were killed in a series of attacks by extremist militants in Sinai. The Egyptian authorities on Saturday shut down Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip until a further notice, and launched a large-scale military operation in the peninsula.
The indirect Israeli-Palestinian dialogue was a resumption of the talks that led to an Egypt-brokered cease-fire agreement, which ended the latest 50-day large-scale Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in August. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, 11,000 others wounded and over 100,000 displaced during the conflict, while Hamas attacks also killed at least 73 Israelis.