Egypt hosts meeting of Palestinian factions

CAIRO - Palestinian factions met in Egypt on Sunday to discuss reconciliation efforts amid increasing violence between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank.

The meeting, chaired by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, seeks to restore inter-Palestinian unity among various factions, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

While the two main rival movements, ruling Fatah and Gaza-controlling Hamas, take part in the meeting in Egypt's New Alamein City, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) announced beforehand it would boycott the gathering due to political arrests of some of its members by the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.

The gathering brokered by Egypt came amid soaring violence in the West Bank. Earlier in July, the Israeli raids on the Jenin refugee camp killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded more than 150.

The Palestinian embassy noted that the Palestinian president and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi are scheduled to meet on Monday.

Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been sponsoring meetings between Palestinian factions for years, in addition to brokering truces between armed Palestinian movements and Israel.

Egypt has repeatedly reiterated its position that supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with the internationally-recognized two-state solution.