Beijing
\nPalestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah have signed an agreement on \u201cending division and strengthening Palestinian unity\u201d in Beijing, China said Tuesday.
\nThe announcement followed reconciliation talks hosted by China involving 14 Palestinian factions starting Sunday, according to China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, which come as Israel wages war against militant group Hamas in Gaza and as Beijing has sought to present itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict.
\nChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the agreement was \u201cdedicated to the great reconciliation and unity of all 14 factions.\u201d
\n\u201cThe core outcome is that the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people,\u201d Wang said, adding that \u201can agreement has been reached on post-Gaza war governance and the establishment of a provisional national reconciliation government.\u201d
\nIt was unclear from Wang\u2019s comments what role Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, would play in such a arrangement, or what the immediate impact of any deal would be. The talks were held as the future governance of Palestinian territories remains in question following the Israel\u2019s repeated vow to eradicate Hamas in response to the group\u2019s October 7 terrorist attack on its territory.
\nThe PLO is a coalition of parties that signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1993, and formed a new government in the Palestinian Authority (PA).
\nFatah dominates both the PLO and the PA, the interim Palestinian government that was established in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after the 1993 agreement known as the Oslo Accords was signed. Hamas does not recognize Israel.
\nThere is a long history of bitter enmity between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah. The two sides have tried \u2013 and failed \u2013 multiple times to reach an agreement to unite the two separate Palestinian territories under one governance structure, with a 2017 agreement quickly folding in violence.
\nThe PA held administrative control over Gaza until 2007, after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled it from the strip. Since then, Hamas has ruled Gaza and the PA governs parts of the West Bank.
\nAt a press conference Tuesday in Beijing, Hamas delegation representative Mousa Abu Marzook said they had reached an agreement to complete a \u201ccourse of reconciliation,\u201d while also using the platform in Beijing to defend the group\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re at a historic junction. Our people are rising up in their efforts to struggle,\u201d Abu Marzook said, according to a translation provided by China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, adding that the October 7 operation had \u201cchanged a lot, both in international and regional landscape.\u201d
\nBeijing has not explicitly condemned Hamas for its October 7 attack on Israel.
\nTuesday\u2019s agreement follows an earlier round of talks between Hamas and Fatah hosted by Beijing in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah have signed an agreement on \u201cending division and strengthening Palestinian unity\u201d in Beijing, China said Tuesday. The announcement followed reconciliation talks hosted by China involving 14 Palestinian factions starting Sunday, according to China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, which come as Israel wages war against militant group Hamas in Gaza […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-420256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n