CAIRO (Dispatches) – A delegation from the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, headed by the newly chosen leader in Gaza Yehiya Sinwar, has travelled to Cairo to hold the first high-level meeting with the country’s security officials after months of tensions.
Salah Bardaweel, an official within Hamas, said the three-member delegation crossed into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, the only passageway to the outside world for the besieged Gaza Strip which is mostly closed as part of a Zionist and Egyptian blockade.
The Zionist regime has been blockading Gaza since 2007 as a way of punishing its residents who voted for a Hamas administration. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Bardaweel said the Palestinian and Egyptian officials discussed the humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip, Egypt's role in making conditions better and the need to open Rafah crossing for Palestinian travelers.
Sinwar, a senior commander of Hamas’ military wing, was elected to head the movement’s political office in Gaza on February 13. He is second in rank only to the new chairman of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, who is also based in Gaza.
Ties between Hamas and Egypt have been tense in recent years as Cairo accuses the Palestinian resistance group of backing militants in Sinai Peninsula, an allegation strongly rejected by the movement.
Last month, Hamas dispatched forces to the Gaza Strip’s frontier with Egypt in a confidence-building measure aimed at boosting security in the border area. The deployment came as part of an agreement reached between the two sides in March.