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Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed today to try once more to form a unity government and hold new elections.
The reconciliation deal was announced by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the Hamas government in Gaza and President Mahmoud Abbas’s envoy Azzam al-Ahmed of Fatah.
“We agreed on a timetable to end the split,” Mr Haniyeh told a joint news conference.
He said that the sides planned to form an interim government within five weeks.
Presidential and parliamentary elections should be held on the same date, “at the earliest six months after forming the government.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has systematically undermined Mr Abbas by tying him up in futile “negotiations,” accused him of sabotaging peace efforts by seeking rapprochement with Hamas.
“He has to choose. Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace. So far he hasn’t done so.”
