Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has offered to visit the Gaza Strip for unity talks with rival Palestinian faction, Hamas. The trip would mark Abbas’s first visit to Gaza since his forces were expelled in a five-day civil war there in 2007.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: “To form a government of independent national figures and to agree to prepare immediately, I am not going to have a dialogue. I am going to agree to form a government and to agree on holding parliamentary, presidential and national council (PLO) elections, within six months or as soon as possible.”

Hamas has agreed to meet with Abbas. The talks were announced after Palestinians held parallel national unity rallies in the West Bank and Gaza earlier this week.