Today, Wednesday, Cairo hosted talks between the Hamas and Fatah movements on Palestinian reconciliation, amid the continuation of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, which continued for more than a year and led to the death of 24,000 people, most of them women and children.
Taher Al-Nono, media advisor to the head of Hamas’s political bureau, said that the meeting “discusses the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause.”
Al-Nono said, “These meetings aim to discuss the aggression against the Gaza Strip, political and field developments, and unify efforts and national unity.”
He said that the movement’s delegation arrived in Cairo yesterday, Tuesday, led by Khalil al-Hayya, the chief negotiator in Hamas and deputy head of its political bureau.
Two sources in the Fatah movement confirmed that the meeting was held.
This meeting is the first since the two movements held talks in the Chinese capital, Beijing, last July, and agreed on steps to form a unity government. Similar rounds of negotiations in the past have failed to achieve any progress.
The issue of managing the Gaza Strip after the war is one of the most complex matters facing the Palestinians, while both movements say that it is an internal matter and reject any Israeli conditions.
Israel pledged not to accept any administrative role for Hamas in Gaza after the war. It says it does not trust the Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, to undertake this task either.
Division has prevailed in the Palestinian arena since the Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, following its victory in the 2006 legislative elections.