Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siam announced on Saturday that the Fatah and Hamas movements had agreed on an immediate cessation of armed clashes in the Gaza Strip.

Siam's announcement was made in a news conference held in Gaza following a meeting between leaders from the two movements at the Egyptian Diplomatic Mission building in Gaza City.

"We agreed on the immediate cessation of fighting between Fatah and Hamas, pulling out militants from streets, deploying official Palestinian police forces instead, and opening all roads after removing all roadblocks," said the minister of the Hamas-led government.

Twenty-five Palestinians had been killed and around 250 wounded in the infighting in the Gaza Strip since Thursday afternoon, according to official statistics released by Palestinian Ministry of Health.

That brought the total death toll in last ten days of factional violence to 60, according to the health ministry figures.

Efforts to end the infighting had failed for several times, which was marked by the scuppering of an shaky ceasefire sponsored by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya and the Egyptians on Tuesday.

Haneya called earlier on Saturday upon both his Hamas and the rival Fatah movements to pull militants off streets, end fighting and remove roadblocks.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman from President Mahmoud Abbas' Ramallah office told reporters that Abbas would meet in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with Hamas movement's exiled leader Khaled Mashaal next Tuesday.

According to Abu Rudeineh, the talks between Abbas and Mashaal "would focus on reinforcing the ceasefire agreement between Fatah and Hamas and the formation of a Palestinian national unity government."

Source: Xinhua