Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to reinforce the truce that militants agreed to abide by, while a new wave of violence in Gaza threatened the fate of the shaky calmness, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told the "Voice of Palestine" radio that Abbas is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other militant groups in the Gaza City to discuss the current situation there.

"We hope that all sides will agree upon decisions in the highest interests of the Palestinian people," Erekat said.

The senior official also called on the international community to immediately interfere in order to keep the truce deal alive.

"If it's really concerned to keep the calmness, the international community has a big responsibility," he urged.

"It's not acceptable that one side is committed to the calmness while the other violates it through incursions, assassinations, arrests as well as other offensive practices," Erekat said.

Meanwhile, prominent leader of Hamas in the West Bank Hassan Yousef said Hamas and Abbas will also discuss disputes over results of the recent Gaza municipal elections.

"The meeting will discuss the disagreements that occurred between Hamas and Fatah (now led by Abbas) over the results of the elections and we hope to put guarantees and conditions to affirm a just election," Yousef said.

Abbas arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening amid a backdrop of a new round of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militants have recently launched rocket attacks on Israel and Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israeli troops clashed with militants, leaving several dead.

The new flare-up has posed a grave challenge to the de facto truce that Palestinian militants committed themselves to at the behest of Abbas.

Israel has repeatedly demanded the Palestinian leadership to rein in militants as a planned withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank will come in just two months' time.

Source: Xinhua