Palestinian Ambassador to Egypt Diab Allouh said on Thursday said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would arrive in Cairo on Friday to meet with his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Abbas will also participate in the inauguration of the Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque and the Cathedral of Christ’s Nativity in the new administrative capital.
Allouh noted that the Palestinian-Egyptian summit would see discussions on the latest developments in the Palestinian case and issues of common concern, underlining the “deep-rooted cooperation between the two leaders on all political developments.”
Sources in Ramallah said that the summit was expected to address the failure of the reconciliation efforts between the PLO and Fatah on the one hand and the Hamas movement on the other, in light of the latter’s insistence on maintaining control over the Gaza Strip.
In this context, the Palestinian national reconciliation government said during a meeting in Ramallah on Thursday that it rejected and condemned a decision by the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza to re-impose fees on imported goods and raw materials through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The government called on traders and importers not to abide by this “illegal decision”, and to refrain from paying fees for obtaining import permits, in light of the suffocating siege imposed on the sector and the deteriorating economic situation.
The government stressed that the decision reflected “a determination by the Hamas movement to deepen the separation, to interfere in the work of the national reconciliation government, to increase the suffering of our people, and to obstruct the reconstruction process.”
The government, in a meeting on Thursday chaired by Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah, emphasized “the illegality of this decision, which constitutes a flagrant violation of laws and regulations”, noting that the imposition of taxes and fees could only be made by virtue of a law.
