Fatah vice chairman Mahmoud al-Aloul, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and senior Hamas negotiator Mousa Abu Marzook at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Tuesday after 14 Palestinian groups signed an agreement to set up an interim national reconciliation government to administer Gaza after the war ends. Photo by Predro Pardo/EPA-EFE
July 23 (UPI) — Hamas, Fatah and 12 other Palestinian factions Tuesday signed a landmark Chinese-brokered unification pact “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity,” according to China’s foreign ministry.
The breakthrough came after two days of negotiations aimed at reconciling the various splinter groups at the behest of Beijing, which has positioned itself as a peacemaker amid ongoing fighting in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas and other armed groups triggered by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The so-called Beijing Declaration was, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “dedicated to the great reconciliation and unity of all 14 factions.”
“The core outcome is that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people,” said Wang, who added that “an agreement has been reached on post-Gaza war governance and the establishment of a provisional national reconciliation government.”
He said China, which condemned Israel’s retaliatory response to Oct. 7 but not Hamas for launching the attacks, hoped to “play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East”.
The deal apparently ends decades of enmity between the Fatah, in the form of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank which signed the 1993 Oslo Accords seeking peace with Israel, and Hamas which seized control of Gaza after the two sides effectively fought a civil war over the strip in 2007, and which does not recognize Israel.
Palestinian National Initiative President Mustafa Barghouti who attended the talks in Beijing said that all parties had agreed to join the PLO and that it was the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians.
Hamas representative Mousa Abu Marzook credited a shakeup in the international and regional landscape brought about by Oct. 7 and the subsequent war for the breakthrough.
“We’re at a historic junction. Our people are rising up in their efforts to struggle,” said Abu Marzook who claimed the agreement was the culmination of a “course of reconciliation.”
However, uncertainty remained over what Hamas’ function would be and what impact the deal might have given the question marks over how the war might affect the future governance of Palestinian territories and Israel’s stated aim of wiping out Hamas.
China backs statehood for the Palestinians and has provided emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza during the conflict and pledged post-war reconstruction assistance.
Tuesday’s agreement came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in Washington ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, said a deal to free hostages being held in Gaza was looking more hopeful.
His comments came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was within the “10-yard line.”
