Hamas in Gaza
Hamas in GazaAbed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

A senior Hamas delegation on Sunday left for Egypt in order to attend a meeting with representatives of the Fatah movement as part of another round of reconciliation talks.

The Hamas delegation is headed by Salah Al-Aruri, the deputy leader of the organization, and also includes senior Hamas members Khalil al-Hayya and Husam Badran.

Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanoa told the Palestinian Arab Safa news agency that the purpose of the meeting was to achieve progress on a national consensus in terms of a political partnership with Fatah.

"The contacts are taking place and the dialogue is ongoing, and we are interested in bringing about the success of the partnership track with all the organizations, whether it is a partnership in the PLO or in the (Palestinian) institutions to deal with the challenges facing the Palestinian problem," he said.

In September, the two rival organizations held reconciliation talks in Turkey that focused on preparing the ground for holding general elections for Palestinian representative institutions.

Hamas is interested in joining the PLO in order to take control of it from within and thus gain international recognition as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement in October of 2017, as part of which Hamas was to transfer power in Gaza by December 1 of that year.

That deadline was initially put back by 10 days and later reportedly hit “obstacles”. It has never been implemented.