Gaza's Hamas urges Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to end 'political arrests' in Egypt meeting

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday called on Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to end "security collaboration" with Israel and "political arrests", according to participants at a meeting of Palestinian factions in Egypt.

Haniyeh, whose movement has governed the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip since 2007, made the remarks during the talks in the Egyptian coastal city of El Alamein, several representatives in attendance told AFP.

The latest attempt at intra-Palestinian reconciliation aims to bridge the gap between the parallel governments of Hamas and of the Palestinian Authority - controlled by Abbas's Fatah movement - which administers Palestinian-run areas of the occupied West Bank. 

Haniyeh called for "the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)", the umbrella institution promoting Palestinian statehood.

The body includes most Palestinian political factions, but not Hamas or Islamic Jihad, an armed group which boycotted Sunday's meeting.

The Hamas leader also said "a new, inclusive parliament must be formed on the basis of free democratic elections."

Hamas, which won the Palestinians' last legislative polls held in 2006, has repeatedly called for general elections.

Abbas on Sunday said "the coup d'etat and the division that befell us after must end," referring to clashes between Hamas and Fatah that followed the 2006 vote.

"We must return to a single state, a single system, a single law and a single legitimate army," Abbas added.

The PLO is "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people", according to Abbas.

He called for "peaceful popular resistance", while Haniyeh touted "comprehensive resistance".

'Incomplete'

Sunday's meeting brought together all Palestinian political factions except for Islamic Jihad and two other minor groups.

Islamic Jihad had made the release of prisoners held by the Palestinian Authority's security forces a condition for sending representatives to El Alamein.

Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader, said on Sunday the group had "hoped for a response from Mahmoud Abbas to grievances and calls for the release" of its members detained in the West Bank.

"We have been surprised by an unprecedented security incursion against resistance fighters."

With Islamic Jihad and the two other factions absent, Sunday's meeting was "incomplete", Haniyeh said.

The meeting comes amid ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have carried out near-daily raids in a number of cities, killing over 200 Palestinians so far this year.

Israeli incursions increased after Israel's extreme far-right government came to power in December last year. Many ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, have a history of anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It continues to expand settlements and carry out attacks in the West Bank. It withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 but imposed a crippling blockade on in in 2007 after Hamas took control of the territory.