Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah have
reached a deal over political reconciliation, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh
said in a statement on Thursday without providing further details.
A
Hamas official told Reuters that details are expected to be released at
a noon news conference in Cairo, where unity talks between the rival
factions began on Tuesday.
The Western-backed
mainstream Fatah party lost control of Gaza to Hamas, considered a
terrorist group by the West and Israel, in fighting in 2007. But last
month Hamas agreed to cede powers in Gaza to President Mahmoud Abbas’
Fatah-backed government in a deal mediated by Egypt.
"Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement at dawn today upon a generous Egyptian sponsorship,” Haniyeh said in a statement.
Egypt
has helped mediate several attempts to reconcile the two movements and
form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas
and Fatah agreed in 2014 to form a national reconciliation government,
but despite that deal, Hamas’s shadow government continued to rule the
Gaza Strip.
