1 of 6 | Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah delivers a speech during a tour to some of the areas worst hit by the 50-day war between Israel and Gaza militants in July and August, during a visit to the Gaza Strip, on October 9, 2014. UPI/Ismael Mohamad |
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GAZA CITY , Gaza, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The "Unity government" Cabinet of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met in Gaza Thursday, with officials traveling from the West Bank to attend.
The event, which Hamdallah called "historic," indicates the Fatah party involved in the West Bank's Palestinian Authority will be more involved in government of Hamas-controlled Gaza. The two rival factions organized a single government for both Palestinian-controlled territories after a reconciliation agreement was signed -- and a unity government was sworn in -- in June.
Hamdallah is the most prominent West Bank leader to visit Gaza since 2007, when Hamas seized the territory. He said, "We have left the division behind us," and sought to "restore Gaza to normal life and to unity with the West Bank."
The display of harmony came prior to an international donors' conference this weekend in Cairo, where Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to request at least $4 billion in aid to rebuild Gaza after its 50-day summer war with Israel, the New York Times noted Thursday. Since a number of countries refuse to deal directly with the Gaza government because it has failed to recognize Israel, funds for reconstruction can be more easily funneled through the Palestinian authority.
On his way to the meeting, Hamdallah's motorcade deliberately passed through some of the sections of Gaza hardest-hit by the brief war, and most desperately in need of rebuilding.
"This meeting is more symbolic than anything else. It was important that it was convened and the role of the consensus government was cemented in the reconstruction process," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday.
