Anadolu staff
30 July 2023•Update: 30 July 2023
RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, Palestine
Resistance strategy will be the top priority at a Sunday meeting of Palestinian groups, an official said on Saturday.
The meeting will be held in the Egyptian capital Cairo at the invitation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss developments after Israeli attacks on the West Bank city Jenin on July 3, Fehmi Sahin, political chief of the Palestinian People's Party, told Anadolu.
Sahin said the three main topics to be discussed are “strengthening and expanding the role of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the functional role of the Palestinian Authority, and the strategy of resistance to be developed against Israel and its crimes.”
He expressed hope for all parties to find common ground.
Attendees should put aside disagreements and focus on the struggle against the occupation and supporting the people’s resistance, he said,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad will not attend
Khizr Habib, a leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement (PIJ), told Anadolu the group will not attend the meeting.
“The Palestinian authority's refusal to accept the release of political prisoners" is the reason it will not attend, he said.
Habib said the meeting will “fail” because the Palestinian authority left the issue of prisoner release unanswered: "For the meeting to be successful, it was necessary to create a positive atmosphere by releasing the prisoners, but unfortunately this will not happen," he said.
Some other Palestinian groups have also announced that they will not take part in the meeting, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and the Vanguard for the Popular Liberation War – Lightning Forces (As-Sa’iqa).
On July 10, Abbas announced an extraordinary meeting of Palestinian groups’ general secretaries in Egypt.
The meeting is expected to address the dangers and challenges facing the Palestinian cause following a 48-hour attack by Israel on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this month.
*Writing by Merve Berker
