Fatah Says Top Delegation Denied Entry to Gaza‎

A Fatah delegation was on Friday prevented from entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip where they were to have held reconciliation talks with the Islamist movement, Fatah said.

The planned visit comes as Nabil Shaath, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party's central committee, has been in Gaza since January 2 for talks with Hamas leaders and other Palestinian representatives on implementing a reconciliation deal.

"Hamas has denied the official presidential delegation entry to Gaza," General Ismail Jaber, Abbas' adviser on security issues, told Agence France Presse by telephone.

"We came with good intentions to a part of the nation for the purpose of reconciliation, but at the (Hamas) checkpoint we were forbidden entry," said Jaber, a member of the delegation.

The group also included an Abbas adviser and two Fatah central committee members.

Jaber added that following the incident, the Fatah delegation returned to the West Bank.

But Hamas interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP that there "was no ban on the Fatah delegation's entry."

"What happened is that they refused to wait a short period of time while the security forces at the checkpoint contacted their superiors," he said, claiming that one delegation member had cursed and insulted the security forces.

"The wait did not last more than ten minutes.

"We don't prevent anyone from entering, as shown by the arrival of Shaath, who has been able to work freely in Gaza," Ghussein said.

Since 2007, the Palestinian territories have been politically divided into two, with Fatah largely ruling the West Bank and Hamas governing Gaza.

In April, following years of bitter rivalry, the two factions signed a reconciliation deal whose implementation has since stalled.

Last month, Abbas met Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Cairo and the two agreed on a process that would pave the way for the Islamist group to join a reformed Palestine Liberation Organization and for long-delayed Palestinian elections.