Islamic Hamas movement and Gaza militant groups had secretly agreed to halt firing homemade rockets from the Strip at Israel, a senior well-informed source told Xinhua late Tuesday night.

The source, which spoke in condition of anonymity, revealed that a meeting was secretly held in Gaza city, and was attended by leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements as well as leaders other minor militant groups.

"It was agreed during the meeting to avoid the Israeli provocations and not to carry out actions by the Palestinian factions and armed groups that bring back a violent Israeli reaction," said the source.

Earlier on Tuesday, the local Palestinian media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that they saw Hamas militants searching into cars in northern Gaza Strip and looking for rockets that other militants fire at Israel.

Hamas hasn't commented on the report.

The reports on the deployment of Hamas police came after Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, said that his movement decided to halt the rocket attacks on Israel for the time being.

Mashaal's remarks were made following reports that Egypt had conveyed an Israeli letter to Hamas warning them of a possible military operation in the territory if the rockets continued to be fired.