GAZA CITY: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s exiled rival took part in a public meeting with Hamas members of parliament on Thursday for the first time in a decade.

Mohammed Dahlan was Abbas’s ally inside the Fatah party until they fell out, with Dahlan expelled in 2011.

He now lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates and has been moving closer to Gaza’s rulers Hamas in recent months, with rumours he could join a government in the Palestinian enclave.

Abbas, the internationally recognised leader based in the West Bank, has sought to isolate both Dahlan and Islamist movement Hamas.

A portion of the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has not met in full since Hamas seized Gaza from Fatah in a near civil war in 2007, held an emergency session on Thursday.

Dahlan attended via video link, while seven of his allies in Gaza attended in person — along with 22 Hamas members, according to Hamas’s media office.

The 132-member parliament is dominated by Hamas with 74 members, while Fatah has 45.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2017