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Hamas: Reconciliation Deal Reached with Fatah

by Reuters

   CAIRO/GAZA --

   Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah have reached a deal over
   political reconciliation, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a
   statement Thursday without providing further details.

   A Hamas official told Reuters that details are expected to be released
   at a noon news conference in Cairo, where unity talks between the rival
   factions began Tuesday.

   The Western-backed mainstream Fatah party lost control of Gaza to
   Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the West and Israel, in fighting
   in 2007. But last month Hamas agreed to cede powers in Gaza to
   President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah-backed government in a deal mediated by
   Egypt.

   "Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement at dawn today upon a generous
   Egyptian sponsorship," Haniyeh said in a statement.

   Egypt has helped mediate several attempts to reconcile the two
   movements and form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the
   West Bank. Hamas and Fatah agreed in 2014 to form a national
   reconciliation government, but despite that deal, Hamas's shadow
   government continued to rule the Gaza Strip.