Hamas To Send Delegation To Cairo Unity Conference

The Hamas team will hold bilateral meetings with President Mahmoud Abbas`s Fatah faction ahead of the conference.

A Hamas delegation led by deputy politburo head Moussa Abu Marzouk will travel to Cairo on Tuesday to attend an Egyptian-sponsored Palestinian reconciliation conference, a Hamas official said.

The Hamas team will hold bilateral meetings with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction ahead of the conference involving 13 Palestinian organisations, he added.

Egypt said the conference, which aims at establishing a Palestinian unity government that could help end the blockade on the Gaza Strip, will begin on Wednesday.

Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas-run Gaza in December and January deepened divisions between Hamas and Fatah. It also raised tension between Hamas supporter Syria and the U.S.-backed governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Marzouk lives in Syria, along with other members of the exiled leadership of Hamas, including the group's leader Khaled Meshaal, who heads the politburo.

U.S. Senator John Kerry said after meeting Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday that Syria had shown willingness to help the Cairo conference succeed.