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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Lawmakers from Hamas and those affiliated with a former Gaza strongman have met for the first time in a decade in Gaza’s parliament building.
Thursday’s meeting was the latest sign that an emerging Gaza power-sharing deal between the territory’s Hamas rulers and Mohammed Dahlan, a former leader in the rival Fatah party, is moving forward.
It also underscored a deepening rift in Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Dahlan fell out with Abbas in 2010.
Dahlan was to join the meeting in parliament by video conference from exile in the United Arab Emirates.
The legislature has been idled since Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces, then under Dahlan’s command, and took over Gaza in 2007.
Under a new deal, Dahlan is to use his foreign ties to help end Gaza’s border blockade.
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