Analysis

Abbas denies reports of hospital stay during Cairo visit

Palestinian leader tells TOI he is in good health; Fatah officials deny PA president met with exiled Fatah official Dahlan in reconciliation bid

By Avi Issacharoff
  • Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
 8 November 2015, 11:23 pm
File: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, October 28, 2015 (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday evening that he was in good health, despite Israeli reports that he had been hospitalized while visiting Cairo for high-level talks.

Speaking with The Times of Israel by telephone from Cairo, the Palestinian leader said that his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi earlier in the day “went well” and “was positive.”

Several reports in Israeli and Egyptian media reported that Abbas was taken to a local hospital after falling ill. Some surmised that Abbas feigned the illness to avoid a meeting with former Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan being brokered by Egypt.

Top Palestinian officials denied Egyptian media reports that Abbas held a meeting with Dahlan.

According to the reports, Dahlan flew to Cairo in a private jet from his current home in the United Arab Emirates at the Egyptians’ invitation, especially to meet with Abbas.

Egypt, the reports said, was working to bring about reconciliation between Dahlan and Abbas.

Abbas and Sissi reportedly agreed that all practices leading to the creation of “more tension” should be stopped, including Israel’s construction of settlements, which, Sissi underlined, are illegal under international law.

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency quoted a Sissi spokesperson as telling Abbas that the Egyptian army’s actions in the northern Sinai Peninsula were intended “to secure Egypt’s borders.” He said those actions were carried out in full coordination with the Palestinian Authority.

According to a statement published by spokesperson Alaa Youssef, the Egyptian army’s actions near Gaza “could never be meant to harm the Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip.”

He was referring to the recent destruction by the military of smuggling tunnels connecting Gaza to Sinai and the subsequent construction of fish ponds to prevent the digging of new tunnels.

Sissi, according to Ma’an, told Abbas that living conditions in Gaza would improve if the PA retook control of the Gaza Strip. Sissi told Abbas that it would be easier to keep border crossings open if the PA and Hamas were in control of the Strip.

The coastal territory has been ruled by Hamas since the terror group took it by force in 2007. Hamas has been accused by Egypt of aiding terrorists active in the Sinai.

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