Officials from Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have met in Syria to resolve a Gaza flare-up between the two, the groups announced on Tuesday, just days after Hamas-led police forcefully dispersed a gathering by the other group.

The two groups issued a joint statement saying they held a "long meeting" on Monday in Damascus, discussed their relations and the situation in the Palestinian territories.

Both sides asserted their "strategic relations", adding that minor disagreements and events on the ground "will not affect the depth of these relations".

Hamas-run police on Saturday dispersed by force the sit-in by the Islamic Jihad's Teachers Union in Gaza that was protesting what it argued is politicisation of academic institutions in the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.