BICOM

The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have reached an agreement to bridge divides between them and form a unity government by the end of the month.

The Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip have been fierce rivals since a bloody coup by Hamas in Gaza brought an end to a short lived unity government in June 2007. However, relations between the two have visibly warmed over the past several months.

Last week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal met face to face for the first time in over a year, paving the way for this week’s talks in Cairo. It was announced yesterday that an agreement had been reached to establish a Palestinian unity government headed by Abbas by the end of this month. Fatah and Hamas also agreed to re-start the work of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission in preparation for presidential and legislative elections and pledged to resume work on releasing prisoners from both sides. However, there appeared to be no agreement on the future of both sides’ security and armed forces.

Egyptian mediators released a statement saying that Fatah and Hamas “have agreed on a timeline to start implementing all issues related to the reconciliation, starting today and ending at the most by January 30.” However, similar unity agreements have been announced over the past eighteen months, only for the arrangements to later collapse.

Earlier this week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the implications of the talks, saying “Abu Mazen [Abbas] embraces the head of a terrorist organization that declared only last month that Israel must be wiped off the map…This is not how someone who wants peace behaves.”