Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday held the first face-to-face meeting in.

The meeting took place during celebrations marking Algeria’s 60th anniversary of independence from France.

Local media published photos of the two West Bank and Gaza leaders shaking hands in presence of Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune, who was said to have initiated the meeting.

No details of the conversation between Abbas and Haniyeh were released. The last time they were said to meet was in 2016 during talks in Qatar.

Algeria also hosted reconciliation negotiations between the rivaling sides earlier this year with senior members of Abbas’s party Fatah and the resistance group Hamas attending the meeting but reaching no progress.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid commented on the possibility of his meeting with Abbas during his visit to France. Following talks with French President Macron, who called on returning “to political dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis,” Lapid said he wouldn’t “have a meeting for the sake of a meeting” but added that he didn’t completely rule it out if “there was a chance for a positive result for Israel.”