Egypt appoints new head of Palestinian file

Egypt’s director of the General Intelligence Service (GIS), Major General Abbas Kamel, has issued a decree appointing Major General Ahmed Abdel Khalek as the agency’s chief of Palestinian affairs, Quds Press reported yesterday, quoting official sources.

Abdel Khalek will be replacing Major General Sameh Nabil.

The Egyptian official, the sources added, has started communications with the leaders of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip and has invited them to meet with intelligence chiefs in Cairo.

The decision comes following Nabil’s failure to achieve the reconciliation between the PA and Hamas.

Read: Egypt will not hold back on any effort to support Palestinian rights

Last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi appointed Kamel as the new head of the GIS, six months after he was assigned to manage the country’s General Intelligence Directorate in January.

Kamel, who replaced Major General Khaled Fawzy, was reported to have carried out a series of undeclared structural changes within the agency since his appointment, a move which politicians describe as “a hidden conflict within the Egyptian military”.