Ramallah- The Palestinian cabinet held on Tuesday a meeting in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for the first time in three years, but failed to take any prompt decisions.

Instead, the government decided to send the difficult and complicated files to a meeting of Fatah and Hamas leaders in Cairo next week.

“We are ready to remove all pending issues to the Cairo meeting,” Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah said during the meeting held in Gaza at the residence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The prime minister told the crowd on Tuesday, “The only way to statehood is through unity. We are coming to Gaza again to deepen the reconciliation and end the split.”

The Palestinian Authority is asking to completely control the Gaza Strip, including its security, borders and crossing points.

Fatah and Hamas should therefore solve such disputes, in addition to the political program and the elections.

Abbas said on Tuesday that the government should be given the green light to enforce its full authority in the Gaza Strip.

In a video address to the Palestinian unity government, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said, “I have always known that there is an opportunity for peace in the region, on the condition of union between all parties.”

Recently, Egypt has been sponsoring talks for the resumption of Palestinian national reconciliation efforts.

The Egyptian president said that Egypt has forever been a supporter of the Palestinian cause. “The cause has always been at the top of Egypt’s priorities during meetings with world leaders or during international conventions,” El-Sisi said.

He added that the whole world was watching the current efforts to achieve reconciliation between the Palestinian people.

“I have a full belief that the differences should be solved among Palestinians with the support of your Arab brothers, rejecting interference from any foreign powers on the issue,” El-Sisi said.

Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 in fighting with Fatah forces loyal to Abbas and has ruled the impoverished desert enclave of two million people since then.

It is still unknown how Fatah and Hamas would solve their disputes especially the ones related to security issues, particularly in the presence of a militant army in the Gaza Strip. 

Abbas says he only accepts the presence of one army, which is the army of the Palestinian Authority while Hamas says that the weapons of the resistance are not up for discussion.