Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah heading the cabinet meeting in Gaza, the first in three years. (WAFA photo/Rafi Maleh) 

GAZA, October 3, 2017 (WAFA) – The Palestinian National Consensus Government held its first meeting in three years in Gaza on Tuesday, a day after arriving in the besieged Gaza Strip following success of reconciliation efforts.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told the cabinet at the start of its meeting that his government is going to assume full responsibility of all sectors of life in Gaza “in full cooperation and partnership with all the Palestinian factions and forces.”

He said all outstanding administrative issues, including the employees file, will be gradually dealt with in the framework of the 2014 Cairo agreement “within the available resources.”

“We are here to close and forever the page on division and steer our national project back to its right track to end the Israeli occupation based on international law and UN resolutions,” he said.

Reconciliation, said Hamdallah, will oblige donors to meet the pledges they made in Cairo in 2014 toward the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following Israel’s devastating war.

He also urged an immediate lifting of the 10-year-long Israeli siege on Gaza and an end to Israel’s collective punishment, as well as the reopening of all the crossings between Gaza and the outside world.

Gaza has common borders with Israel and Egypt, but both countries keep their crossing closed most of the time barring Gaza’s two million people the right to travel for education, business or any other reason.

Various cabinet ministers had inspected their ministries in Gaza and met with staff to make sure the takeover of the ministries runs smoothly.

The cabinet ministers are expected to return to Ramallah on Wednesday.

M.K.