Senior Fatah, Hamas leaders meet in Gaza

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.

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.

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 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'.

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 24th, 2009 GAZA - Hamas movement's leaders Sunday rejected a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying that only a ceasefire for a limited period of time was acceptable. Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters here that the Hamas delegation heading to Cairo was 'not to agree on a long-term ceasefire, but to discuss the reinforcing of the truce between Israel and Gaza factions.' 'The talks in Cairo aim at reaching a limited ceasefire that doesn't exceed one year, then we can re-discuss it before it ends,' Radwan said, adding that 'reopening the crossings and rebuilding Gaza will be issues to be discussed.' 'We won't accept a long term truce that kills the armed resistance, because resistance is a legal right for the Palestinian people as long as there is an occupation,' he added.

January 19th, 2009 GAZA - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Gaza Tuesday afternoon to evaluate the ground situation following the Israeli military offensive in the salient. His convoy crossed into the Gaza Strip through Erez border crossing between northern Gaza Strip and Israel.

January 15th, 2009 GAZA CITY - An Israeli air strike Thursday afternoon killed Said Siam, minister of the interior in the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, the al-Quds radio station of the radical Islamic Jihad movement announced. Siam's brother was also killed in the strike, as was the head of Hamas' security apparatus, Salah Abu Shreh.

January 13th, 2009 JERUSALEM - A senior Israeli defence official will visit Egypt Wednesday for talks over a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a media report said. Amos Gilad, head of the Diplomatic Security Bureau of Israel's defence ministry, is scheduled to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman for facilitating a talk with Hamas, Ynet news service reported.

December 26th, 2008 GAZA - At least 120 Palestinians, most of them Hamas security members, were killed Saturday when Israeli airplanes launched simultaneous strikes across the Gaza Strip, Hamas sources said. Tawfiq Jaber, chief of Hamas police, was among the dead in the series of strikes targetting almost all Hamas-run security headquarters and training camps of its military wing.