Palestinian leaders hold Gaza talks

May 23, 2007

It was the first meeting of the two Palestinian leaders since a surge in factional violence this month pushed the Palestinians to the brink of civil war. Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction shares a shaky two-month-old unity government with the ruling Hamas Islamists, hoped to convince Hamas to stop cross-border rocket attacks against Israel as part of a renewed ceasefire with the Jewish state. Israel has threatened to intensify its bombing campaign against Islamist militants unless the rocket attacks stop.