Chief of Egypt's General Intelligence Service (GIS) Abbas Kamel visited, on Monday, the besieged Gaza Strip to meet leaders of the Palestinian factions there. The meetings took place to discuss the latest efforts to reconstruct Gaza after the recent Israeli aggression. Kamel conveyed several messages during Monday's meeting from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the Gaza leaders. Al-Sisi affirmed Egypt's full support for the Palestinian people and their leaders. He also emphasised the need to unify all Palestinian factions under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Egyptian President called for all regional, international powers to support the Egypt-led reconstruction efforts in the Gaza strip. He stressed that Egypt is making great efforts to stabilise the situation and clear the way for resuming the peace process in cooperation with international powers, led by the United States. Accompanied by ministers from the Palestinian Authority, Kamel first met with Yahya Sinwar, head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, and a number of the movement's leaders. The meeting addressed ways of stabilising the truce between the Palestinian resistance and Israel, among other key files. The meeting came in the wake of Kamel's meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem and Ramallah. The high level Egyptian delegation held a further meeting including the leaders of a number of Palestinian factions. The discussions focused on efforts to stabilise the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the issue of reconstruction, lifting the siege, and other issues. After the meeting, Kamel laid the cornerstone of a new residential project to be established in Gaza by Egyptian companies. Meanwhile, Khalil Al-Hayya, a member of Hamas's political bureau, said at a press conference on Monday that the movement will never accept linking prisoner exchanges to the Gaza Strip's reconstruction. He indicated that the Israeli occupation is not serious, and has no decision to proceed with the prisoner exchange file. On Sunday, Kamel met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Benny Gantz in Jerusalem, before going on to met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Two weeks ago, Egypt mediated a successful ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance movements and the Israeli occupation to end an 11-day Israeli aggression against Gaza. Egypt has long been advocating Palestinian reconciliation. Palestinian politics have been divided since 2007 between Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank. Both major Palestinian movements have ties to Egypt, which has hosted numerous rounds of negotiations seeking to end the rift.
