A series of meetings between Hamas and senior officials in Cairo in recent weeks are showing an improvement in ties between Egypt and the Palestinian movement, with implications for Gaza, Palestinian politics and the wider region. Ismail Haniyeh, who has recently assumed the post of Hamas' leader, said in a speech in Gaza Wednesday that relations with the Gaza Strip's neighbor to the southwest were warming.
For much of the last decade, Egypt has joined Israel in enforcing a land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza Strip, a move to punish Hamas and its armed wing, which seized the territory in 2007 and has controlled it since.
Sensing the need to act, and worried about losing popular support, Hamas sought to mend ties with Egypt, which controls their one border crossing and has, under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, been highly wary of ties between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, which Sisi ousted from power after mass protests.
The meetings in Cairo were believed to have been facilitated by Mohammad Dahlan, 55, a former senior Fatah official who is originally from Gaza and is now a staunch opponent of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader.
The analysts say if Egypt is forging better relations with Hamas, it may well insist on Hamas giving up its friendship with the emirate.
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