GAZA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian consensus government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah held on Sunday an emergency meeting and announced that it had finalized all the preparations for the government's historic visit to the Gaza Strip on Monday.
"We are going tomorrow (Monday) to the Gaza Strip in a positive spirit and are determined to do our part in supporting the reconciliation efforts and folding the page of division so that the homeland can be reunited with its people and institutions," Hamdallah said in the meeting.
He added that the government's decision to go to Gaza "comes in the context of the practical steps to end the division and aims to get acquainted with the situation of the sector and its institutions and holding the weekly cabinet meeting as usual."
Hamdallah chaired on Sunday in Ramallah the emergency meeting of his consensus government ministers. Palestinian security chiefs attended the meeting to check the preparations of the government's visit to the Gaza Strip on Monday.
He will chair a high-ranking Palestinian delegation that is scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip, on Monday. The visit has been decided under the latest Egyptian-sponsored understandings of Palestinian reconciliation reached in Cairo last month.
Hamdallah pointed out that the government "will contribute gradually to resolving outstanding issues that have stood in the past impediment to the implementation of reconciliation agreements."
He noted that his government formed three committees for the files of borders crossing points, ministries and staff, and security. The delegation will arrived from Ramallah and will cross in the Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing point.
Ihab Bseiso, minister of culture in Hamdallah's government arrived on Sunday in Gaza to finalize the preparations on the ground for the arrival of Hamdallah and his staff. Two official security and media delegations had already arrived in Gaza on Thursday for the same purpose.
As soon as Bseiso arrived in Gaza, he immediately headed to the building of the ministry of culture in the Gaza city that has been run by Hamas for more than ten years, since the movement had violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Hamdallah's cabinet will hold its first cabinet meeting in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning; the first meeting of the consensus government's cabinet held in Gaza since December 2014.
Eyad al-Bozzom, spokesman of the Hamas-run ministry of interior said in an emailed press statement that the interior ministry security apparatuses had finalized all the security arrangements and preparations on the ground for the arrival of the government to Gaza on Monday.
An official in Hamdallah's government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the consensus government delegation will remain in the Gaza Strip until Thursday morning this week. He added that Hamdallah will meet Hamas chief Ismail Haneya and other leaders of various factions and political powers.
Last week, Hamdallah said getting responsibilities of the consensus government in Gaza "means that the government will begin to work in a comprehensive and effective manner, without any exaggeration or diminution of all its functions, responsibilities and powers."
The arrival of the government to Gaza came after Hamas declaration on Sept. 17 that it dissolved its administrative committee in the Gaza Strip and invited the government to take over its functions in Gaza.
Hamas declaration was made during a visit of its delegation and another from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party to Cairo during which the Egyptian side discussed the efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation to end the internal division that started in mid-2007.
For its part, the independent Palestinian figures called for the concerted efforts of all Palestinian parties to make the success of the government in an effort to end the internal division and achieve national reconciliation.
"The atmosphere is very promising to ensure the success of the efforts to end the internal situation and enable the government of reconciliation to work in the sector," said Munib al-Masri, head of the independent personalities' group at a news conference in Gaza.
He stressed the urgent need for reconciliation "to develop a comprehensive strategy aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and ending the siege of the Gaza Strip and the suffering of its inhabitants."
In the same context, the Palestinian NGO Network launched an appeal calling for further reconciliation and ending internal division under the slogan "Yes to reconciliation on a national and democratic basis."
The network, which includes 133 Palestinian NGOs, urged the success of efforts to achieve reconciliation and overcome dialogue over any obstacles to unification of Palestinian institutions.
A popular conference was also held in Gaza today to support the achievement of Palestinian national unity and an end to internal divisions organized by the Center for Vision Studies and the gathering of Palestinian families.
A member of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and its official in the Gaza Strip, Saleh Nasser, said during the conference that achieving reconciliation is "a national Palestinian and community necessity."
He urged the government to "formulate a contingency plan to end the crises in the Gaza Strip, especially the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and solving the problem of electricity, water, health, hospitalization and the environment in Gaza."
Fatah and Hamas have reached a series of bilateral and other understandings in the past ten years, but they have failed to put an end to the internal divisions and restore unity between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
