The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported today, Saturday, that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head to Egypt tomorrow, Sunday, to attend a tripartite summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Diab al-Louh, stated that the meeting will focus on "the latest developments related to the Palestinian issue and coordinating positions to garner international support to end the suffering of the Palestinian people and achieve their legitimate national rights to freedom and independence and establish the foundations of a state with East Jerusalem as its capital."

The summit, which will be held in the coastal city of El Alamein, comes amid increasing instability in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian president ordered on Thursday the retirement of 12 governors out of 16 regional governors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the governors of northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah in the Gaza Strip. These roles are considered symbolic and lack authority, as the Palestinian Authority, controlled by Fatah, was violently ousted from the coastal enclave in 2007 by Hamas, which has ruled there since then.

In the West Bank, he ordered the dismissal of the governors of Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tubas, and Jericho. No reason was given for the political upheaval, but the report said that Abbas has ordered the formation of a presidential committee to find suitable candidates for the positions.

Observers warned that the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of financial collapse, with increasing loss of governmental control over security in certain areas.

Hamas has also witnessed rare public protests against its rule in Gaza in recent weeks amid growing frustration with chronic power outages and difficult living conditions.

In July, rival Palestinian political leaders meeting in Egypt decided to form a committee for internal Palestinian reconciliation, a step that some analysts doubt will end their ongoing 17-year dispute.
Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met for rare face-to-face talks in El Alamein with representatives from most Palestinian political factions.

The latest reconciliation attempt aims to bridge the gap between Hamas's parallel government in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Abbas and Haniyeh were joined by leaders of other factions, except for Islamic Jihad and two smaller groups.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was reported to be refusing to sign economic measures to support the Palestinian Authority, despite Israeli commitments to the United States.

The summit also comes at a time when the United States is working to mediate a possible normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he may offer concessions to the Palestinians in order to secure the deal, although analysts are skeptical of the possibility given his current hardline coalition.