Palestinian factions have met in Egypt to debate reconciliation efforts amid surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants within the occupied West Financial institution
FILE – Palestinians conflict with Israeli safety forces throughout a army raid within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus, on July 7, 2023. Palestinian factions had been assembly Sunday July 30, 2023 in Egypt to debate reconciliation efforts as violence within the occupied West Financial institution surged between Israel and Palestinian militants. (AP Picture/Majdi Mohammed, File)
The Related Press
CAIRO — Palestinian factions met Sunday in Egypt to debate reconciliation efforts as violence within the occupied West Financial institution surged between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The principle teams, Hamas and Fatah, have been cut up since 2007 and repeated reconciliation makes an attempt having failed, so expectations for the one-day assembly had been low.
Contributors on the closed-door assembly gave no indication of what was mentioned. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who initiated the session within the Egyptian metropolis of el-Alamein on the Mediterranean Sea, mentioned at its conclusion solely that the assembly was a “first and vital step” in efforts to finish the long-running division.
It got here amid hovering violence within the West Financial institution, the place Abbas and his Fatah group are primarily based and exert restricted self-rule. Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in Palestinian areas of the territory in what it says is an try and stamp out militancy, particularly in areas the place Abbas’ safety forces have much less of a foothold.
These raids have led to a few of the worst preventing in almost 20 years within the West Financial institution. Palestinians additionally say the Israeli raids undermine their very own safety forces and weaken their management.
The assembly in Egypt was chaired by Abbas, presenting the growing older and longtime Palestinian chief with an opportunity to painting a picture of management and statesmanship to each Palestinians and the worldwide group at a time when he’s deeply unpopular at residence and his room for maneuver is constrained by the Israeli incursions.
The assembly was attended by different Palestinian leaders, together with Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of Hamas, the militant group that guidelines the Gaza Strip. Fatah and Hamas have been rivals since Hamas violently routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza in 2007, taking on the impoverished coastal enclave. Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on the territory.
For Hamas, becoming a member of the assembly was a chance to indicate Gazans that it’s making an effort to fix the rift, even when nothing modifications because of this.
One other key group enjoying a central function within the preventing with Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, boycotted the gathering to protest the detentions by the Palestinian Authority of its members, mentioned to the group’s chief, Ziyad al-Nakhala.
Egypt has for years acted as a mediator in attempting to finish the infighting between Palestinian factions. It additionally helped dealer truces in a number of rounds of preventing between Israel and Hamas.