Hamas ready for talks with Fatah for Palestinian unity
Repeated attempts at reconciliation with Fatah have failed since the militant Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007
Hamas said on Sunday it would do away with a body seen as an alternative government in the Gaza Strip in a step towards reconciliation with rival Fatah following discussions with Egypt.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, also said it was ready for talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah on forming a unity government and holding elections.
The announcement comes after talks in Cairo last week with Egyptian officials in which Hamas chief Ismail Haniya agreed to take such steps, a Hamas official said.
Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed since the militant Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007, leaving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, with autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A senior Fatah leader welcomed the pledge by Hamas to accept key conditions for ending a decade-old Palestinian political and territorial split.
But Mahmoud Aloul also told Voice of Palestine radio Sunday that “we want to see that happening on the ground before we move to the next step.”
