CAIRO: Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached a “comprehensive” agreement Thursday for the return of their unity government in Gaza after two days of talks in Cairo, negotiators from both sides said.
The Palestinian rivals had set up a unity government of independents in June but it never took hold, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas accusing Hamas of running a “parallel” administration as de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas in turn accused Abbas´s Palestinian Authority, headquartered in Ramallah, of not paying its 45,000 employees in Gaza.
“Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gaza Strip,” Jibril Rajoub of Fatah told.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk and Fatah´s head of delegation, Azam al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached.