Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said he will send a delegation to Cairo, in two days, to follow up with the Palestinian reconciliation issue.
“We are determined to restore national unity between Gaza and the West Bank,” he said while chairing the new Palestinian cabinet’s first session.
“As you know, we’ve been trying with our Arab brothers since 2007 to reach reconciliation and solve the Gaza issue,” he said, adding that Hamas took over Gaza Strip.
He urged them to sit and talk to solve this issue, stressing that they are both partners in Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem.
Abbas blamed Hamas for violating an agreement reached in 2017 by Egyptian mediation, stressing that despite this, his party wants to reach a reconciliation since it’s not possible to have a “state in Gaza or a state without Gaza.”
“We will seek national unity at all costs, and within two days, a delegation from Fatah will head to Cairo to follow up on this issue,” Abbas noted.
He also expressed reservations about the truce talks carried out by Egypt in the Strip, accusing Hamas of working on a project to separate the Strip from the West Bank.
Abbas's decision comes after forming a new government, which has ended the role of the national unity government, of which Hamas took part in its formation.
“The Palestinian cause is passing through difficult circumstances, but Palestinians and their leadership are responsible,” he noted.
Addressing the ministers, Abbas said this mission is difficult, adding that the new government will face many challenges, mainly the Deal of the Century, or the US peace plan, whose content has all been declared.
He told the ministers that the Palestinians have rejected the US plan because it excluded Jerusalem from Palestine.
“Therefore, we don't want to hear the rest of the plan,” he stressed.
Ties between the United States and the PA were severed after US President Donald Trump declared in late 2017 that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and moved his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the city in 2018.
