Hamas, Fatah start reconciliation meeting in Cairo

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 16th, 2009 GAZA - The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, Sunday accused its rival Fatah movement of blocking the progress of the unity talks the factions hold in Cairo. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said that Fatah still crack down against Hamas's supporters in West Bank.

March 15th, 2009 GAZA CITY - Palestinian reconciliation negotiators signed an agreement in Cairo to prohibit fighting or the use of weapons to settle internal disputes, a Palestinian academic said Saturday. The agreement was ratified as rival Palestinian factions continued intense talks to reach an agreement on broader issues such as the formation of a unity government to replace the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip and the Western-backed government in the West Bank formed by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement.

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'.

March 7th, 2009 RAMALLAH - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Saturday said he has submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. Informed sources said that Fayyad made the decision in order to pave the way for reconciliation ahead of talks between the Islamic Hamas movement and Abbas' secular Fatah due in Cairo March 10.

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.

January 15th, 2009 GAZA CITY/TEL AVIV - Top Israeli diplomats were heading for Washington and once again to Cairo to work out the details of a truce in Gaza, as fighting in the strip continued Friday and the Palestinian death toll topped 1,100. As Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni left Thursday night for the US to sign an agreement on joint intelligence cooperation against weapons smuggling to Gaza, another senior official, Amos Gilad, was returning to Egypt where he had heard Hamas' position on an Egyptian ceasefire initiative Thursday.