Hamas, Fatah meet in Lebanon focuses on 'confronting occupation'

Hamas and Fatah officials held a meeting in Lebanon on Sunday which the Palestinian Islamist group said focused on confronting the Israeli occupation.

Hamas deputy overseas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk met in Beirut with Fatah central committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad, the national relations commissioner, The New Arab's Arabic sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, reported.

Hamas said the meeting "emphasised strengthening efforts to unite the national ranks and get Palestine's house in order to confront the [Israeli] occupation" and the projects of Benjamin Netanyahu's widely expected new government.

This includes "colonial settlement expansion, the Judaisation of Jerusalem and the temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque".

The meeting took place at the Palestinian embassy in Beirut.

Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabour was in attendance, as was Hamas's Ali Baraka, head of national relations abroad for the group.

It is widely expected former Israeli prime minister Netanyahu will be back in charge of the government at the helm of a coalition with far-right allies.

It comes after elections took place in Israel earlier this month.