Description

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The first cabinet meeting of the Palestinian unity government will take place in Gaza on Thursday after Israel issued permits to allow Palestinian ministers to attend.

Officials told Ma'an that the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs made "great efforts" with Israel to obtain the necessary permits for ministers to cross into Gaza.

Officials were granted permission to cross through the Erez terminal in northern Gaza.

It will be the first time that ministers from the new unity government have convened together.

In April, Hamas agreed to work with its rivals in Abbas' Fatah movement to form an interim consensus government of technocrats which would work towards long-delayed national elections.

The deal sought to end years of bitter and sometimes bloody rivalry between Hamas and Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.