Egypt has tried in vain for 14 years to reconcile Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s nationalist Fatah faction and its bitter rival Hamas, the armed Islamist movement that opposes any negotiations with Israel. No Palestinian elections have been held in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem for 15 years. As well as Hamas and Fatah there are thought to be around a dozen other factions represented in the Cairo talks. That set up a power struggle between Hamas, with its power base in Gaza, and Fatah in the West Bank. By Nidal Almughrabi and Ali Sawafta, Editing by William MacleanIMAGE: Fatah’s Azzam Al-Ahmad, right, and Saleh Al-Arouri of Hamas after signing a reconciliation deal in Cairo, October 12, 2017, as the two rival Palestinian movements ended their decade-long split.

Source: Egypt Independent February 08, 2021 13:07 UTC