A delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas headed by deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri arrived on Tuesday in Cairo to discuss with Egyptian officials bilateral relations and Palestinian reconciliation. The delegation also included leading Hamas members Moussa Abu Marzouk, member of the group's political bureau Khalil Al-Haya and the group's spokesperson Hossam Badran. Badran said that Hamas is keen to adhere to the reconciliation accords signed in 2011 and 2017. In October 2017, Hamas and its rival group Fatah signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo in which Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. Egypt helped mediate several previous attempts to reconcile the two movements and form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank, where Abbas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority are based. Hamas and Fatah agreed in 2014 to form a national reconciliation government, but the deal soon dissipated in mutual recriminations, with Hamas continuing to dominate Gaza.
