RAMALLAH: Indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians on consolidating the Gaza truce are set to resume in Cairo on Wednesday, two days after new reconciliation negotiations between Fatah and Hamas, officials said.
On August 26, both sides agreed a truce that ended 50 days of deadly conflict in the enclave and provided for a resumption of negotiations within a month to discuss unresolved issues.
The indirect talks between Israel and a delegation of all Palestinian groups will be preceded by talks between the two heavyweights of Palestinian politics, Fatah Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Islamist Hamas.
“Egypt has invited Palestinian and Israeli delegations to resume talks in Cairo on September 24,” a Palestinian official said.
There has been no official word yet from Israel, but an Egyptian official confirmed the date and added that Fatah and Hamas had also been invited to meet tomorrow.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to comment on the announcement of talks.
However, the celebration of Rosh Hashanah begins in Israel on Wednesday night and Thursday and Friday are holidays. Saturday, Shabbat, is also a day off.
In April, Hamas agreed to work with its rivals in Abbas’s Fatah movement to form an interim consensus government of technocrats which would work towards long-delayed national elections.
A new cabinet took office on June 2, with Gaza’s Hamas government officially stepping down the same day.
Sakher Bseiso, a member of Fatah’s central committee and of the delegation invited to Cairo, said Fatah and Hamas delegations of five senior members would travel to Cairo for the inter-Palestinian talks.
The sides will discuss the issue of the transfer of power in Gaza to the national unity government and security in the enclave after the war ended last month, Bseiso added.
Bseiso said “negotiations with Israel must be based on a clear vision on which the Palestinians, particularly Fatah and Hamas, will agree in advance and on a unified Palestinian strategy.”
AFP
