Palestinians edge closer to unity

The Palestinian cabinet met in Gaza for the first time since 2014 yesterday, as Israel warned it would reject any reconciliation deal between the Palestinian factions unless Islamists Hamas disarm.

The meeting comes as part of moves to end a decade-long split between the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip.

The return of the PA to Gaza had been cautiously welcomed by the United States and the United Nations, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could be a "bogus" reconciliation "at the expense of our existence".

Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the PA in a near civil war in 2007, and since then multiple reconciliation attempts have failed.

But following Egyptian pressure the Islamists announced last month they were willing to hand over civilian control to the PA, which is dominated by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Tuesday's cabinet meeting was the first in Gaza since November 2014, and comes a day after Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah entered the territory for the first time since a unity government collapsed in June 2015.

Egypt has brokered the rapprochement between the two sides. The sides will hold further talks in Cairo later yesterday.