BEIJING has brokered a historic deal to end the rift between Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah, Chinese state media reported today.
The deal between Fatah, Hamas and 12 other groups comes as Israel continues its assault on Palestinians in the devastated Gaza Strip.
China’s CCTV television announced that the two sides and other, smaller Palestinian factions had signed the Beijing Declaration on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity,” pledging to form a unity government for the Palestinian territories.
Hamas has governed Gaza for the past 17 years, while Fatah is the main force in the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank.
The groups issued a joint statement announcing the deal but giving no details on how or when the unity government would be formed, merely saying that it would be done “by agreement among the factions.”
It said they had promised to follow up on previous reconciliation agreements signed in 2011 and 2022.
In the statement, all the factions said they were committed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands that Israel captured in the 1967 six-day war.
The declaration calls for a widening of the membership of the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to include Hamas and the other groups, said Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal.
“It’s a long way ahead and most of it will be implemented after a possible ceasefire,” he added.
Hamas members have never been part of the PLO, the umbrella group of Palestinian factions that undergirds the Palestinian Authority.
Qatar-based Hamas political official Husam Badra called the agreement a further “positive step towards achieving Palestinian national unity.”
Israel predictably denounced the agreement, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemning Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for signing the deal.
Posting on the X social media site, Mr Katz said:
Instead of rejecting terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true face.
He claimed that Palestinian rule in the coastal strip would never materialise as Hamas would be crushed and Mr Abbas would “be watching Gaza from afar.”
With the war in Gaza now in its 10th month, Israel and Hamas are weighing an internationally backed ceasefire proposal that would wind down the war and free dozens of hostages and prisoners held by both sides.
At least 89 people are reported to have been killed in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis governorate since Monday, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office. Hundreds of people have also reportedly been wounded.