ALGIERS: On the fringes of the celebrations honoring the centennial of Algeria’s independence, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had their first public encounter in more than five years.
State-run media in Algeria said late on Tuesday that the meeting, which it dubbed “historic,” also included members from the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas movement.
In a meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whose nation celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence from France, the two, who had their last official face-to-face encounter in Doha in October 2016, were brought together.
Since elections in 2007, when Hamas took over Gaza, Abbas’ secular Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority that governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has been at odds with the movement. Rafiq Riyad Ghannem, 20, was shot by Israeli forces in Jaba, a hamlet close to the hotspot city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
