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News > World

Palestine's Hamas and Fatah Begin Reconciliation Talks

  • Palestinian Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Egyptian intelligence chief Khaled Fawzi in visit to Gaza City October 3, 2017.

    Palestinian Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Egyptian intelligence chief Khaled Fawzi in visit to Gaza City October 3, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 10 October 2017
Opinion

Hamas and Fatah's respective leaders are meeting in Cairo to discuss the creation of a unified Palestinian government.

Hamas and Fatah representatives have begun a three-day reconciliation conference in Cairo as part of talks to create a united Palestinian government. 

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Hamas is sending deputy head Saleh al-Arouri and Azzam al-Ahmad, member of the Fatah Central Committee, to the Egypt-brokered talks, which will focus on forming a unified Palestinian government that appoints an agreed-upon prime minister and cabinet members. Khalil al-Haya, a member of the Hamas delegation in Cairo, said the meetings are being held "to confront intransigence and the Israeli project."

Participants of this historical meeting hope to unite the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007, and the Fatah-controlled West Bank. The Hamas party kicked out Fatah affiliates from the Gaza Strip 10 years ago after Fatah initially refused to accept Hamas’ 2007 parliamentary election wins in the region. Soon after, Israel imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza, “regulating the flow of people, goods, medicines, foods and humanitarian supplies into and out of the territory,” according to Al Jazeera.

The talks are a follow-up to a 2011 agreement between Fatah and Hamas drawn up in Cairo that intended to “resolve the civil and administrative problems that resulted from the division (and) unify the Palestinian National Authority institutions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.”

These and other statements of shared power between the two parties, so far, have only remained on paper. Reconciliation efforts between the two parties in 2014 were suspended when Israel began a 50-day missile launch campaign against Gaza, killing more than 2,200 people.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently called for "one state, one regime, one law and one weapon." He has been pressuring Hamas in Gaza over the past several months to relinquish its control of the territory and come to the discussion table by reducing salaries of public employees in Gaza and having Israel reduce electricity flow to the region. 

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