Hamas said yesterday it has agreed to steps toward resolving a decade-long split with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, announcing it will dissolve a body seen as a rival government and is ready for elections.
The statement comes after Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian officials last week, and with the Gaza Strip run by the Palestinian Islamist movement facing a mounting humanitarian crisis.
Hamas said it had agreed to key demands made by Fatah: dissolving the so-called “administrative committee”, while saying it was ready for elections and negotiations towards a unity government.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniya agreed to take such steps in talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo last week, a Hamas official said.
It was unclear, however, whether the steps would result in concrete action towards ending the division with Fatah, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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