Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have reached an agreement after two days of discussions held behind closed doors in Cairo, aimed at solidifying the reconciliation announced last week, the Islamist movement Hamas reported on Thursday.
The office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which announced the agreement, did not provide further details. A press conference is scheduled for noon in Cairo, a source within Fatah reported.
“Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement at dawn under the generous Egyptian sponsorship,” Haniyeh’s office announced.
The negotiations pertain to specific details of rapprochement between the two rivals, after decades of division. It appeared that discussions on the most contentious issues, such as security control in the Gaza Strip and the fate of 25,000 members of Hamas’s armed wing, would be postponed.
Hamas has unilaterally governed the Gaza Strip since it expelled the Palestinian Authority from there almost at the cost of a civil war with Fatah in 2007. Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, governs the West Bank.
Fatah is considered a moderate Palestinian group, while some Western countries and Israel have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
