Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas 'agree to end rift'

BBC News, 27 April 2011

The Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which governs Gaza, have agreed a reconciliation deal, officials say.

Hamas and Fatah have been bitterly divided
for more than four years

Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, an interim government will be formed and a date fixed for elections.

The factions have been divided for more than four years, with Hamas in power in Gaza and Fatah running the West Bank.

Palestinian and Egyptian spokesmen told news agencies of the deal but a formal announcement has not yet been made.

Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza this month, calling for reconciliation.

The protests were inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

The split between the two groups occurred when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006.

Tahir al-Nounou, a Hamas government spokesman who was at the meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, where the deal was hammered out, told the BBC: "Hamas and Fatah have signed in principle a reconciliation deal in Cairo.

"The final signing will be in a week from now. Cairo will invite Mahmoud Abbas and [Hamas leader] Khalid Meshaal, and representatives from all Palestinian factions, to attend the signing."

Mr Nounou said all disagreements had been overcome.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says that if the deal goes ahead, it will end five years of bitter hostility between the two sides and remove a significant barrier to the Palestinian campaign for statehood.

But he says there are many difficult issues to resolve - such as how the two factions will share security, how Gaza and the West Bank, separated by Israeli territory, will be governed, and whether the international donors will be willing to recognise Hamas.

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