Palestinian factions meet in Egypt to reunite, reconcile
Palestinian factions kicked off a meeting Sunday in Egypt to discuss reconciliation efforts as violence in the occupied West Bank surged between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The main attending groups, Hamas and Fatah, have been split since 2007. With repeated reconciliation attempts having failed, expectations for the one-day meeting are low, AP wrote.
Another key group playing a central role in the fighting with Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, boycotted the gathering to protest the detentions by the Palestinian Authority of its members, according to the group’s leader, Ziyad al-Nakhala.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the gathering in the Egyptian city of el-Alamein on the Mediterranean Sea was discussing “ways to restore national unity and end the division”.
The meeting comes amid soaring violence in the West Bank, where Fatah group is based and exerts limited self-rule.
Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in Palestinian areas of the territory, especially in areas where Abbas’ security forces have less of a foothold.