Even as a new agreement was reached between Hamas and Fatah on Thursday in Jerusalem Palestinians loyal to the two sides continued to clash in northern Gaza. Many people including civilians were wounded. The new agreement is to be approved by the legislature on Saturday.
The agreement paves the way for Hamas and Fatah to share power and form a Palestinian national government. Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh will remain as prime minister and Azzam al-Ahmed, chief of Fatah’s parliament bloc, will be the deputy prime minister.
When Hamas, an Islamic militant group with its stronghold in Gaza, won the elections in January 2006 it was a great shock to the ruling Fatah party as well as to Israel and western countries. Even the Arab governments in the region were sceptical of a Hamas-led government in Palestine.
The unexpected victory of Hamas was not acceptable to many. Hamas was, and still is, in the terrorists list of the European Union and the United States. Its election victory was quickly followed by announcements from foreign governments that they would not recognize a government headed by Hamas in Palestine.
The Fatah party was also reluctant to handover power to Hamas. The party had dominated th Palestininan political scene ever since it was founded in the 1960s.
Violence erupted in May 2006 and Hamas and Fatah party engaged in a civil war in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed so far. Efforts to bring about peace between the warring Palestinian groups did not bear fruit as there was no way to stop the factional in-fighting.
A Saudi Arabia sponsored peace effort brought the two sides to negotiations, but no break-through could be achieved as Hamas faced opposition from various quarters, including Israel. Israel refuses to recognize any Palestinian government headed by Hamas, as the group denies Israel’s right to existence and calls for its destruction.
The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has called on the USA, EU, and Israel to recognize the new government as this is the best arrangement he could bring about after hard negotiations, though the agreement falls short of international demands for Hamas to renounce violence, accept past peace agreements and recognize Israel.
A final peace plan to solve the rivalry between the Fatah party and Hamas is expected to be worked out at the Arab Summit in Riyadh during the last week of March.
