By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan
CAIRO (Reuters) -Leaders from Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement discussed plans for cooperation after the war in Gaza in a new round of talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official told Reuters.
The talks are the first since the two groups met in China in July and agreed steps to form a Palestinian unity government for Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
They are also part of long-running and previously unsuccessful efforts to heal a schism that hardened when Hamas seized control of Gaza in a brief conflict with Fatah in 2007.
The Hamas delegation is led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s Qatar-based second-in-command and chief negotiator, Hamas media official Taher Al-Nono said.
A Palestinian official said the Fatah delegation was led by Fatah’s second-in-command, Mahmoud Al-Aloul. There was no immediate comment from Fatah.
“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Nono said.
The issue of the administration of Gaza after the end of the year-old Israel-Hamas war is one of the thorniest issues facing the Palestinians.
Israel, which began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, has ruled out the group’s inclusion in a post-war administration.
It says it also does not trust the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which partially governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to do the job.
The Palestinian factions say their post-war plans are an internal affair, and reject Israeli conditions.
BORDER CROSSINGS
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said that if no unity government was agreed the groups might try to form a committee to run Gaza and help manage its border crossings.
The shape and exact responsibilities of the proposed committee remained unclear, said the official, who asked not to be named.
Egyptian security officials said Egypt was urging both sides to agree on a mechanism to manage the crossing on its border with Gaza, closed since May.
Cairo says a Palestinian presence must be reestablished at the border. It has been discussing plans for the border with the United States, alongside wider ceasefire negotiations that have now stalled.
Before May, Rafah was the only Gaza crossing not directly controlled by Israel. It had become an important entry point for humanitarian aid and an exit for medical evacuees.
It was previously a gateway to the outside world for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents although Egypt and Israel tightly controlled movement through it.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Editing by Aidan Lewis, Ros Russell and Timothy Heritage)
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