Hamas accuses Fatah of blocking dialogue

August 13th, 2009 GAZA - Hamas will deal "positively" with the new peace plan by the US but only if a separate Palestinian state is recognized, an aide to the Islamic movement's leader Ismail Haneya said Thursday. "We have an initial readiness to accept it and deal with it positively but we will also reject it if it doesn't include an American recognition of Palestinian rights," said Yousef Rizka, Haneya's political advisor.

August 4th, 2009 Fatah seeks renewal in first conference since 1989BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Palestinians' Fatah movement came together Tuesday for its first convention in 20 years, trying to rise from division and defeat with a pragmatic political program and new leaders in what its supporters hope will be the final push toward Palestinian statehood. Fatah's leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expects the three-day convention to boost his standing and strengthen his hand in dealing with his Hamas rivals and with Israel's hawkish prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

July 1st, 2009 GAZA/CAIRO - Leaders of rival Fatah and Islamic Hamas movement failed to overcome their disputes and reach an agreement by a July 7 deadline set by Cairo, and have agreed to hold a seventh round of dialogue in Cairo July 25, officials said Tuesday. Fatah negotiator Zakareya el-Agha told the Palestinian news agency Wafa of President Mahmoud Abbas that a sixth round of inter-reconciliation dialogue had ended without agreement.

May 31st, 2009 6 dead in internal Palestinian fightingQALQILIYA, West Bank — Palestinian security officials say six people have been killed in a firefight between Hamas fighters and Palestinian policemen in the West Bank. The officials say three of the men are Palestinian policemen loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

April 9th, 2009 GAZA - Leaders of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements held a meeting in Hamas-ruled Gaza Wednesday to discuss reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and mutual reconciliation. The meeting between the two movements' leaders is the first of its kind since Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 following weeks of bloodshed between the two groups' warring militants.

March 31st, 2009 GAZA/CAIRO - Representatives of rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah returned to Cairo Tuesday to resume talks on forming a national unity government, representatives of the groups said. Egyptian-mediated talks between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, were scheduled to resume Tuesday, ahead of a broader meeting including more factions Wednesday.

March 19th, 2009 GAZA CITY/CAIRO - Palestinian factions had agreed in Cairo that the unity government they are trying to form will be a transitional one that would prepare for new elections to be held no later than Jan 25, 2010, Hamas has said. But the sides had reached no breakthrough Wednesday on the government's platform, with the main point of disagreement remaining whether it should endorse past interim peace deals signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), expressing recognition of Israel and calling for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

March 8th, 2009 RAMALLAH - Palestinian acting premier Salam Fayyad stepped down Saturday saying he wanted to pave the way for reconciliation between the Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah. However, Abbas promptly asked Fayyad to stay in office until 'results of national unity talks become clear'.

February 27th, 2009 CAIRO - Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah started national unity talks in Cairo Thursday to overcome a bitter split between rival governments in the West bank and Gaza. The Cairo meeting, sponsored by Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, urged Palestinian factions to overcome their disputes and focus on the best interests of the Palestinian people.

February 13th, 2009 GAZA CITY - The Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip Saturday said it was keeping a number of criminals in an alternative secret detention facility after the only prison in Gaza was destroyed during Israel's recent military offensive. Islam Shahwan, the spokesman for Hamas' police force in Gaza, said the people who have been kept in the secret detention facility were 'jailed for being involved in clannish fighting and attacks on public institutions'.

February 13th, 2009 GAZA CITY - Israel has rejected an 18-month ceasefire with Hamas and wants an open lull without a time-limit, the Islamist Hamas movement said Saturday. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that Egypt, which has mediated between Israel and Hamas, and his movement can't accept such an open lull in accordance with Israel's request.

February 7th, 2009 RAMALLAH - A senior official of pro-west President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement has called on its rival Islamic Hamas movement for an unconditioned dialogue and inter-reconciliation. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Fatah spokesman in the West Bank said in a written statement Saturday that 'Fatah movement and other factions call on Hamas movement to abandon political split and accept an unconditioned comprehensive dialogue'.

February 1st, 2009 BEIRUT/CAIRO - Hamas representatives Monday denied they had agreed to a one-year truce with Israel. The Lebanon-based spokesman of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Osama Hamdan, reiterated the movement's stance that there could be no long-term peace agreement before the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of Gaza was lifted, contradicting remarks made by a Gaza-based Hamas representative Sunday.

January 30th, 2009 GAZA - The Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Saturday its arch-rival Islamic Hamas movement for seeking to form a new leadership for the Palestinians. 'Hamas calls for new leadership aimed at replacing the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people all over the world,' a Fatah statement sent to reporters said.

January 24th, 2009 CAIRO - Egyptian officials were Sunday meeting with representatives of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in talks aimed at turning a one-week ceasefire into a durable truce, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said. Speaking to the satellite news network al-Arabiya, Ayman Taha, a representative of Hamas from Gaza, said that the group would not agree to an open-ended truce, but was prepared to negotiate an 18-month ceasefire.