PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool

i24 News – Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas arrived in El Alamein in Egypt Saturday, the news agency Wafa said, ahead of unity talks between Palestinian factions boycotted by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

The Palestinian news agency said that as well as chairing Sunday’s meeting of the heads of Palestinian factions Abbas “is scheduled to meet with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.”

Last week, Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah made his group’s participation in the talks conditional on the release of its members and those of other factions detained by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad again denounced “continued political detention and prosecution of the resistance.”

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another terrorist faction, is also boycotting the talks.

Sunday’s meeting will include the heads of other political factions, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Both Abbas and Haniyeh met in Ankara on Wednesday in the run-up to Sunday’s crucial meeting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has good relations with both, hosted the talks and said his government will do its best to push for intra-Palestinian reconciliation.

A Palestinian official told reporters the talks aim to “end the divisions (between factions) in preparation for a unified Palestinian government and presidential and general elections.”