Major Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, have reached an agreement for a Palestinian ‘reconciliation’ and national unity government after three days of intense negotiations in Beijing mediated by China, which could clear up questions about who will rule Gaza after Israel’s military operation in the Strip ends.
According to media reports, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi himself confirmed that a deal for an ‘interim national reconciliation government’ to govern the Gaza Strip after the war had been signed by 14 Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Fatah. The news was confirmed by Musa Abu Marzuk, a senior political leader of the Hamas movement, who declared that ‘we are committed to national unity, and we call for it’.
The two main Palestinian groups have been rivals since Hamas fighters drove Fatah out of Gaza in a series of violent clashes that followed Hamas’s resounding victory in the Strip after the 2006 elections. Hamas then took full control of Gaza, while Fatah has since maintained control over the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank with a degree of autonomy.
Previous attempts at reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas have led to failure. The two factions differ both in their approach to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and in their ideological foundations: while Hamas – which organised the bloody 7 October mass attack in Israel – is an Islamist movement and advocates armed struggle, Fatah has a secular tradition and has traditionally favoured peaceful negotiations with Israel leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. However, Fatah’s hitherto dominant position has been compromised by the very weakness of its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and the lack of progress of negotiations with Israel, which has made Hamas increasingly popular among young people, including in the West Bank itself.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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