TEHRAN – Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed an agreement on Thursday on ending a decade-long split following talks mediated by Egypt in Cairo. Under the agreement, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority is to resume full control of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip by December 1, according to a statement from Egypt’s intelligence agency, which oversaw […]
TEHRAN – Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed an agreement on Thursday on ending a decade-long split following talks mediated by Egypt in Cairo.
Under the agreement, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority is to resume full control of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip by December 1, according to a statement from Egypt’s intelligence agency, which oversaw the talks.
President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmud Abbas welcomed the deal and said he considered it a “final agreement to end the division” — though many details remain to be resolved and previous reconciliation attempts have failed.
It was signed in Cairo by Salah al-Aruri, new Hamas deputy leader and Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of the Fatah delegation for the talks, AFP reported.
Negotiations are now expected to be held on forming a unity government, with the various Palestinian political movements invited to another meeting in Cairo on November 21.
An official from Abbas’s Fatah movement said the PA president was planning to soon travel to the Gaza Strip as part of the unity bid in what would be his first visit in a decade.
Sanctions taken by Abbas against Gaza will also soon be lifted, the Fatah official said.
The deal includes 3,000 members of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority’s police force redeploying to Gaza, a member of the negotiating team said on condition of anonymity.
The figure is, however, a fraction of the more than 20,000 police officers employed separately by Hamas.
Another party to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would see Palestinian Authority forces take control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Hamas and Fatah’s high-level delegations kicked off reconciliation talks in the Egypt capital, Cairo on Tuesday in a bid to restore the territorial unity of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The meetings in Cairo were centered on implementing the 2011 Cairo Agreement between the two political parties, in hopes of ending a 10-year political schism.
The 2011 agreement stipulated that legislative, presidential and national council elections should be conducted within one year of its signing. The deal would see both Hamas and Fatah form a Palestinian government to appoint the prime minister and ministerial positions.
