Palestinian president meets Egyptian intelligence chief

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday received Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Mustafa, who delivered a private letter from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according to Palestine’s official Wafa news agency.

The meeting reportedly took place at Abbas’s presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Wafa, the two men discussed recent developments in the Palestinian territories and Egyptian efforts to foster reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.

Last October, the two factions signed a tentative reconciliation agreement in Cairo. The deal’s terms, however, have yet to be implemented amid tit-for-tat recriminations between the two sides.

Mustafa’s visit to Ramallah comes after a spate of violence on the Gaza Strip’s borders in which at least 18 Palestinians have been killed since Friday by Israeli army gunfire.