TUNIS, Jan 5, 2012 (AFP)
TUNIS, Jan 5, 2012 (AFP)
Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya arrived in Tunis Thursday on the next leg of a six-country tour to a welcome from Tunisia’s new leaders and a crowd of some 2,000 people.
It is his first trip abroad since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, and according to his office is aimed at raising funds to rebuild Gaza City, devastated by an Israeli offensive three years ago.
The Palestinian leader, accompanied by some 20 aides, was greeted on arrival by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and the leader of the dominant moderate Islamist Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi.
A crowd of mainly Ennahda suppporters waved Palestinian and Tunisian flags and shouted for “the liberation of Palestine.”
Haniya has already visited Egypt, Sudan and Turkey, with Bahrain and Qatar also on his itinerary.
The tour was also expected to focus on Palestinian reconciliation.
Since 2007, the Palestinian territories have been politically divided, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah largely ruling the West Bank and Hamas governing Gaza.
