CAIRO, January 29. /TASS/. Egypt believes that the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip should be united, thus supporting the Palestinian National Authority and the reform plan presented to it, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at a meeting with Palestinian diplomatic adviser Majdi Khaldi and Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh in Cairo.
"Egypt considers the unification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip important and supports the PA (the Palestinian Authority - TASS) and its reform plan," Abdelatty stressed, according to a press release issued by the ministry. The Egyptian top diplomat added that he believes it is necessary to expand the political authority of the government in Ramallah and support the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hamas published a statement by Mohammed Dervish, the head of the Palestinian movement's advisory body, the Shura Council, on its Telegram channel. In the statement, he accused the PA of being unwilling to establish a unified Palestinian government or an aid committee for the Gaza Strip. Ramallah has not yet commented on the statement.
The Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas are negotiating the post-war governance of Gaza. Their latest round of talks took place in Cairo on November 2-4. According to Hamas officials, the parties discussed the creation of an interim body responsible for managing the Strip until the formation of an all-Palestinian government of national accord, a body called the Public Support Committee. According to Egyptian sources, this body was established by a decree of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and includes independent representatives who must be natives of Gaza but not belong to any political party.
In 2005, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan, Israel fully withdrew from the Strip and evacuated Jewish settlements there. Following this, control over Gaza was transferred to the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority (PA), which also governed the West Bank. However, in the first Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas emerged victorious, confronting the relatively more moderate Fatah. This led to a split between the factions, with the radicals taking full control of the Strip, while their opponents retained power in the West Bank. In recent times, Abbas and his supporters have regularly expressed their desire to restore the PA's jurisdiction over Gaza, but Hamas has not yet agreed to this.