The four-month-old Palestinian unity government is to hold its first ever session in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
“The prime minister and all the cabinet ministers, from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, will hold a meeting in Gaza City for the first time since the government was formed in June,” Labour Minister Ma’mon Abu Shahla said Monday in a statement issued in Gaza.
“We don’t know yet if Israel will allow the ministers from the West Bank to come to Gaza to join the meeting,” he noted.
So far, Gaza-based ministers have had to take part in cabinet sessions held in the West Bank city of Ramallah via video conferencing.
Israel opposes the unity government because it is backed by Hamas, the radical Islamist movement that refuses to recognize its right to exist.
As a result it has refused to grant Gaza cabinet members permits to travel to the West Bank via its territory.
Thursday’s meeting in Gaza comes six weeks after a deadly and destructive 50-day Israeli offensive aimed at curbing Hamas rocket attacks. It also comes ahead of a donors’ conference for Gaza’s reconstruction, scheduled for Sunday in Cairo.
GNA
