BICOM

Hamas announced that it is prepared to accept the conditions required to reconcile with its rival, Fatah, and end a decade of conflict and disagreements.

On Sunday morning Hamas said it would dissolve its “administrative committee,” which the Palestinian Authority (PA) considers a shadow government, and agreed to hold general elections. Hamas called on PA ministers based in Ramallah to come to Gaza in order to assume their roles as part of the national reconciliation government agreed in 2011.

In the announcement, Hamas called for “the creation of a national unity government as part of a dialogue in which all Palestinian factions will participate. We are willing to accept the Egyptian plea for dialogue with Fatah regarding a mechanism for implementation of the 2011 Cairo agreement”.

Fatah official Mahmoud Aloul told Palestinian radio that “if this is Hamas’s statement, then this is a positive sign,” adding that “we in the Fatah movement are ready to implement reconciliation”.

The announcement followed a series of meetings between Hamas leaders and Egyptian officials last week. The head of Hamas’s political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, and other senior Hamas members, have been in Cairo for talks focusing on cross border security. A Fatah delegation joined the talks a week ago.

The leader of the Fatah delegation to the talks, Azzam al-Ahmed, praised the Hamas announcement and said that Egyptian Intelligence Director Minister Khaled Fawzy presented the agreement that he had reached with Hamas to his delegation.

In an interview with the Wafa news agency, Al-Ahmed said a meeting would be held between Fatah and Hamas, to be followed by a meeting with all the Palestinian factions signed on the 2011 Cairo reconciliation agreement in order to begin practical steps to implement the agreement.

He also noted that the national unity government led by PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah would begin its work in the Gaza Strip within the next few days.

Analysts have suggested that recent Egyptian efforts to mediate a solution to the electricity crisis in Gaza have been motivated by a desire to counter Qatar and Iran’s influence over Hamas.