Gaza (AsiaNews) Fatah and Hamas have reached an agreement to end the violence that has opposed the two factions and that was threatening to turn into an all out civil war. Brokered by a delegation from Egyptian security, the talks were the first to be held since fighting broke out at the beginning of this month killing at least 19 people.
"These efforts have been crowned by an agreement," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told al-Jazeera.
"The agreement aimed at resolving internal violence and I hope it will be a serious start to remove tensions between the two movements," Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, said.
Barhoum said that the two sides agreed to end news conferences in which each faction accused the other of stoking tensions. However, "the agreement did not signal an end to the crisis" in the PNA, according to Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post.
On Thursday, in his latest action to turn up the heat against Hamas, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with members of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission to discuss the possibility of holding new elections or conducting a referendum in the Palestinian territories.
"President Abbas is serious about holding new elections if Hamas continues to stick to its position," a senior Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post. "He might also consider calling a referendum to see if the people want the Hamas government to remain in power."
Hamas representatives, however, warned Abbas against such moves, saying they would be tantamount to staging a coup against the Hamas-led government.
According to Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah legislator and close adviser to Abbas, the PA chairman would make a final decision on this issue within the next few days.
"President Abbas has decided to support the idea of the technocratic government and he will make a decision soon," he said. "All attempts to establish a national unity government have failed and there's no point in continuing the negotiations [with Hamas]."
Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siam warned that Hamas would consider any referendum on the fate of the government to be an attempted coup.
