Hamas delegation to visit Cairo toward ongoing reconciliation effort

Fuente: 
Ma'an News
Fecha de publicación: 
14 Jun 2016

A Hamas delegation is to visit Cairo in the coming days to hold meetings with Egyptian officials to resume reconciliation talks regarding the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s shared border, an Egyptian security source told Ma’an.

 According to the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, the Hamas delegation will be joined for the first time by representatives from the movement’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, to travel to Cairo between Tuesday and Wednesday through the Rafah border crossing.

 The meeting is reportedly to be the final phase of ongoing reconciliation efforts between Egypt and the Gaza Strip’s de facto rulers, amid a “clear desire by the Palestinian side to end the division without any external intervention, and move towards forming a Palestinian national unity government,” the source said.

 The source added that Egypt is prepared to play a major role in Palestinian peace negotiations with Israel, should the French initiative to hold an international peace summit in the summer prove unsuccessful.

 The Egyptian government has in the past accused Hamas of assisting the insurgency that has spread throughout the Sinai Peninsula, although Hamas strongly denies the allegations.

 Meanwhile, Egypt has upheld an Israeli military blockade on the Gaza Strip for the majority of the past three years. The nearly nine-year Israeli blockade has plunged the Gaza Strip’s more than 1.8 million Palestinians into poverty.

Ma'an News