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Hamas to let Gaza members to attend PNC sessions in Ramallah: official

Xinhua, September 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Hamas is to let Palestinian National Council (PNC) members to leave the Gaza Strip to attend the PNC sessions scheduled to be held in Ramallah on Sept. 14, a senior official said on Sunday.

Ghazi Hammad, a senior Hamas official, told the Gaza-based Al-Ray Radio he has information that Hamas would let the PNC members to leave Gaza to the West Bank to attend the sessions of the PLO parliament on Sept. 14.

Two weeks ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resigned as the chairman of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee together with nine other members of the committee.

The PLO executive committee decided to hold an exceptional session for the PNC for two days in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sept. 14 to elect new chairman and executive committee members.

However, Hammad, who is also a former deputy minister of foreign affairs, said that holding a session for the PNA should have been coordinated with all other Palestinian factions, including Hamas movement.

"I believe it would be very important for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to attend the PNC sessions, if it was coordinated," he said, adding that "the (Palestinian) Authority put Hamas under two choices, either to come or not to come."

On Saturday, the Palestinian media reported that Saeb Erekat, the PLO Secretary General, met in Qatar with Hamas chief Khaled Mesh'al discussing the PNC sessions in Ramallah on Sept. 14.

Sources said that Erekat asked Mesh'al not to prevent the PNC members who live in the Gaza Strip from traveling to the West Bank to attend the two-day sessions of the PNC to guarantee enough consensus.

Hamas movement has been ruling the Gaza Strip since its violent takeover of the coastal enclave in 2007 following weeks of internal fighting with President Abbas security forces.

Although both Hamas and Abbas agreed to form a consensus government in June last year, deep differences on controlling Gaza Strip's crossing points and paying salaries of Gaza employees, kept the coastal enclave isolated. Endit