BICOM

Khaled Meshaal, considered the overall leader of Hamas will visit the Gaza Strip for the first time today, five years after the organisation violently seized power in the coastal strip.

Meshaal became the chief of Hamas’ political wing in 1996 and assumed overall leadership of the organisation in 2004. During that time, Meshaal has overseen numerous suicide bombings and attacks on buses, cafes and in other public places that have killed hundreds of Israelis. Having ruled over Hamas from afar, formerly from the Syrian capital Damascus and more recently from Qatar, Meshaal had been barred entry into the Gaza Strip by Israel and by Egypt under the leadership of Hosni Mubarak.

However, with Egypt now ruled by Hamas’ ideological ally the Muslim Brotherhood and Israel having agreed to suspend targeted killings as one of the terms of the truce which ended Operation Pillar of Defence, the barriers preventing Meshaal visiting Gaza appear to have disappeared. In the past year, Meshaal has twice announced that he will step down from his position at the head of Hamas, although today’s high-profile visit cast doubt on his intentions.

Meshaal’s visit will mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of Hamas. In a sign of a possible reconciliation between the two Palestinian groups, Fatah officials have accepted an invitation by Hamas to join the celebrations in Gaza. Yehya Rabah, a senior Fatah official in the Gaza Strip told the Jerusalem Post, “There is no reason why we should not participate with our Hamas brothers in the celebrations.”

Relations between Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have been hostile since Hamas ended a short-lived power-arranging agreement between the two sides by violently seizing control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.