Palestinian rivals Fatah, Hamas sign reconciliation accord
Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, center right, and Hamas’ representative, Saleh al-Arouri, center left, sign a reconciliation deal during a short ceremony at the Egyptian intelligence complex in Cairo.
The Palestinian group Hamas says it has reached an agreement with rival group Fatah, ending a decade-long rift.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said details of the deal would be released later on Thursday. Fatah has not commented.
Egypt has been brokering reconciliation talks in Cairo.
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been ruled separately since deadly clashes between the two groups broke out in 2007.
The pro-Hamas Palestinian Information Centre announced the agreement, saying details would be revealed at a news conference in Cairo at midday.
On Wednesday Oct 11,2017, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the talks in Cairo had been "serious and deep".
"The talks are positive and the Egyptian side is even-handed," he said, according to the Palestinian Information Centre.
Last month, Hamas agreed to dissolve the committee that rules Gaza.
The move had been a key demand of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas whose Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governs parts of the West Bank.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah then made a rare trip to Gaza.
He said the Palestinian Authority would begin taking control of Gaza's administrative affairs and "security responsibilities".
Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, EU, UK and other powers.
Who are Hamas ?
Hamas is the largest of several Palestinian militant Islamist groups.
Its name is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, originating as it did in 1987 after the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It originally had a dual purpose of carrying out an armed struggle against Israel - led by its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - and delivering social welfare programmes.
But since 2005, it has also engaged in the Palestinian political process, becoming the first Islamist group in the Arab world to win election through the ballot box (before reinforcing its power in Gaza by ousting its Fatah rivals).
Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, EU, and UK, as well as other powers. Under its charter, the group is committed to the destruction of Israel.
To its supporters, though, Hamas is seen as a legitimate resistance movement.
In May 2017, the group published a new policy document for the first time since its founding. It declared a willingness to accept an interim Palestinian state within pre-1967 boundaries, without recognising Israel, and did not repeat the anti-Jewish language of its charter.
The text was seen as an effort by Hamas to soften its image, though the group made clear it did not replace the charter.
In 2006, Hamas won a stunning victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, but tensions with the rival Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas heightened.
Deadly clashes between Fatah and Hamas erupted in Gaza in June 2007, after which Hamas set up a rival government, leaving Fatah and the PA running parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control
Israel held Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip, and has carried out three major military campaigns in Gaza - Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, and Operation Protective Edge in July 2014.
The offensives were preceded by escalations in cross-border fighting, with scores of rocket attacks from Gaza, and air strikes against it by Israel.
Hamas emerged from the 2008 and 2012 conflicts militarily degraded but with renewed support among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for having confronted Israel and survived.
The group nevertheless continued to struggle under the joint blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, and became increasingly isolated after falling out with regional powers in the wake of the Arab Spring. The overthrow in July 2013 of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a key ally, was a further blow.
In April 2014, Hamas agreed a reconciliation deal with Fatah that led to the formation a national unity government, but it has never been fully implemented.
Who are Fatah ?
Founded by Yasser Arafat in the 1950s, Fatah was once the cornerstone of the Palestinian national cause, but its power has since faded.
Under Arafat's leadership, the group originally promoted an armed struggle against Israel to create a Palestinian state. But it later recognised Israel's right to exist, and its leaders have led Palestinian peace talks aimed at reaching a two-state solution.
Arafat signed the first interim peace deal with Israel in 1993 in Oslo, but a full accord has proved elusive, despite decades of on-off negotiations - the latest round launched by President Barack Obama at the White House last September.
Since Arafat's death in 2004, Fatah has fallen from its position of dominance and, in 2006, lost parliamentary elections to rival Palestinian movement Hamas. In June 2007 it was effectively driven out of the Gaza Strip after violent clashes between the two factions.
Now led by another of its founders, Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah has also seen its power steadily eroded by internal divisions.
The party has been dogged by claims of nepotism and corruption in government and critics say it is in desperate need of reform
Fatah is the reverse acronym of Harakat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniya (Palestinian Liberation Movement). The name means "conquest" in Arabic.
Founded by Arafat and a handful of close comrades in the late 1950s, its leaders wanted to rally Palestinians in the diaspora in neighbouring Arab states to launch commando raids on the young Israeli state.
In 1969, Arafat took over as chairman of the PLO, the umbrella group created by Arab states to represent the Palestinians on the international stage.
But various Palestinian groups within the PLO gradually split off as Fatah proved to them either too ineffective, too corrupt, or too moderate.
By the time of the first intifada - or uprising - in 1988, Fatah's power had been significantly diluted. The party became the chief proponent of a negotiated solution with Israel, and by 1993 accepted Israel's right to exist.
The second intifada saw a number of armed groups associated with Fatah emerge, most notably the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The Brigades are neither officially recognised nor openly backed by Fatah, though members often belong to the political faction.
During the intifada, the Brigades carried out numerous operations against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and suicide attacks on civilians inside Israel.
Israel's responses to the intense campaign of attacks in 2002 further weakened Arafat and Fatah's authority, and left the Arafat-led Palestinian Authority in disarray.
Much of the authority's infrastructure was destroyed, Arafat's compound in Ramallah was besieged for five weeks, and Israel captured Marwan Barghouti - the Fatah leader in the West Bank who Israel alleges is the head of al-Aqsa Brigades. He was later convicted of murder
With international pressure mounting, Fatah - though notably not the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - signed a declaration rejecting attacks on civilians in Israel and committing themselves to peace and co-existence.
In late October 2004, Arafat was taken ill and flown to France for emergency treatment. He died of a mysterious blood disorder on 11 November.
Mahmoud Abbas was confirmed as Arafat's successor as chairman of the PLO shortly afterwards and, as Fatah's candidate, won a landslide victory in the January 2005 presidential elections.
But Mr Abbas inherited a party that was divided, in need of reform, and losing its popular support.
The loss of Yasser Arafat allowed a rift to develop between the party's "old guard" of former exiles and its "new guard", led by the jailed Marwan Barghouti.
Fatah has also suffered from being associated with the perceived corruption and incompetence of the Palestinian Authority.
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