JERUSALEM — Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have reached a tentative agreement to end their 4-year-old rift by forming a caretaker government of independent technocrats and holding new elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip next year, officials said Wednesday.
The pact, brokered by the Egyptian intelligence agency and interim government, followed several days of secret meetings in Cairo.
But Palestinian officials acknowledged they have not yet resolved all of their long-standing differences, and it remains unclear whether they can work together to implement a deal over the coming year. Previous attempts at reconciliation have failed between the mainstream, secular Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza.
“It’s not the end of the path,” said Moussa Abu Marzouk, head of the Hamas delegation, during a news conference Wednesday night in Cairo. “We have a lot to do.”
Unanswered questions include who will serve as prime minister and run security forces and what will be the government’s policy toward Israel.
A previous Fatah-Hamas unity government collapsed in 2007 after a power struggle was followed by a brief armed clash in which Hamas seized control of Gaza. After that, each faction set up rival governments, prime ministers and security forces in the two territories. They have also accused one another of arresting and torturing each other’s members in the land they control.
Both factions have been under growing pressure from the Palestinian public to end their division, which has distracted from efforts to end the Israeli occupation and win statehood. ap polls show that Palestinians blame both parties for the fracture and rank the division among their biggest problems.
Analysts said the recent unrest in Egypt and other neighboring Arab nations helped propel an agreement amid worries that Palestinians might also begin to rebel against their leaders.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are also eager to demonstrate that they represent all Palestinian territories as they prepare to make a bid for statehood recognition from the U.N. this September. Many in the international community viewed the political division as a key roadblock to statehood.
The move by Abbas to reunify with Hamas is the latest sign that the Palestinian Authority has shifted away from negotiations with Israel and is instead looking for alternative strategies to win statehood. U.S.-brokered peace talks broke down in September after Israel resumed West Bank settlement construction and the Palestinian Authority walked away from negotiations in protest.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Abbas that a unity deal with Hamas would kill any hopes of restarting talks because Hamas refuses to recognize Israel or renounce violence. Last month, Hamas resumed rocket attacks against southern Israel from Gaza.
