16 August 2018•Update: 16 August 2018
By Nour Abu Aisha and Hani al-Shaer
GAZA CITY, Palestine
A delegation of Palestinian resistance factions set out for Cairo from the blockaded Gaza Strip on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials about the prospects for de-escalation with Israel.
“A delegation from Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions passed into Egyptian territory today through the Rafah border crossing,” Gaza’s border authority said in a statement.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a security source at the crossing told Anadolu Agency that the delegation included representatives from Hamas; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP); the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front; and the PFLP General Command.
Since Tuesday, leading Hamas members have been holding meetings in Egypt with other Palestinian resistance factions to discuss a possible ceasefire with Israel and prospects for inter-Palestinian reconciliation.
Earlier Thursday, a senior Egyptian security delegation visited Israel for several hours to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire between Gaza-based resistance factions and the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
The visit comes amid ongoing efforts by Cairo to both reach a Hamas-Israel ceasefire and achieve reconciliation between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
In recent weeks, Hamas has been mulling proposals -- tabled by Egypt and the UN -- for inter-Palestinian reconciliation, a Hamas-Israel truce, and humanitarian projects in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Earlier Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreements, the most recent of which was signed last October, have failed to bear fruit due to ongoing differences between the two factions.
