Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Sunday.
Aides to Olmert said the meeting will focus primarily on
humanitarian issues, including aid to the Palestinians, but that the prime
minister would also press Abbas on whether funds were reaching Hamas, a
terrorist group, and on the issue of continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip
into Israel.
The U.S.-brokered pledge in recent months by Olmert and
Abbas to meet more frequently and increase cooperation has been complicated by
Abbas’ national unity deal reached last month with Hamas.
Israel and the United States are still working out a formula on how to deal with
Palestinian Authority officials in the wake of the agreement, which falls short
of international community demands that any Palestinian Authority government
must recognize Israel and renounce terrorism.
