Abbas to visit Turkey, Qatar next week

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to visit Turkey and Qatar, Palestinian official sources said Saturday.

The sources said that Abbas will arrive in Turkey on Sunday and stay for two days, and meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders.

Abbas will discuss with the Turkish leadership the situation in the Palestinian territories and the internal reconciliation with Islamic Hamas movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007.

The sources also said that on next Wednesday, Abbas will fly to Qatar to meet with Qatari leaders. It didn't rule out that Abbas may hold talks with Hamas leaders in Doha.

Hamas and Abbas Fatah Party leaders held rounds of dialogue to end their division and implementing reconciliation understandings. However, the two rivals had so far failed to end their division.

Meanwhile, earlier on Saturday, dozens of Palestinians demonstrated in both Gaza and Ramallah calling on Hamas and Fatah to end the internal division.

In Gaza City Square of the Unknown Soldier and Ramallah al-Manarah Square, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans that called for Palestinian unity.

Ali Aamer, the coordinator of the campaign, told Xinhua that the aim of demonstrating in both Gaza and the West Bank was to push the two rivals to achieve unity.

The internal division started when Hamas movement violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, routed Abbas security forces and cracked down on his Fatah Party.

"It is time to take the initiative and start practicing all types of peaceful, popular and democratic struggle in order to end division and be united to confront all the coming challenges," said Jamil Majdalawi, coordinator of the campaign in Gaza. Endit