Hamas seeks direct meeting with Fatah to discuss joint 'national strategy'
Gaza (ANTARA) - Hamas on Thursday (May 14) called for a direct meeting with the Fatah movement to discuss a joint ‘national strategy’ after the conclusion of its eighth general conference.
Hossam Badran, head of Hamas’s National Relations Office and a member of its political bureau, said in a statement that the conference was “an opportunity to achieve change in internal Palestinian national relations,” and could contribute to “enhancing readiness and preparation to confront Israeli plans.”
Badran accused Israel of seeking “to eliminate the Palestinian struggle completely by exploiting the current international and regional situation.”
He called on the Fatah leadership to hold a “direct meeting” with Hamas after the conference to agree on “a Palestinian national strategy on all issues concerning the Palestinian people during this sensitive stage.”
“It is time for us to overcome differences and the effects of the past” and focus on “the present and the future based on national partnership and shared responsibility,” Badran said.
It is important to take “political steps and concrete actions commensurate with the sacrifices of the Palestinian people,” he added.
Fatah, founded by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1959, is the largest faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization and has been the dominant force in the Palestinian Authority.
The eighth Fatah general conference opened on Thursday in the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank, with sessions held simultaneously in Gaza, Cairo and Beirut.
The three-day conference is expected to produce the names of the members of the two highest leadership bodies of the movement, namely the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council.
On the first day of the conference, the eighth Fatah general conference re-elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as its leader, the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported.
The seventh Fatah general conference was held in Ramallah in 2016, where Abbas was also re-elected as the leader of the movement.
Fatah and Hamas have been at odds since 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza, while Fatah remained dominant in the West Bank.
The two Palestinian factions have been involved in several rounds of talks in Beijing and Cairo in recent years to promote internal Palestinian reconciliation and discuss post-war arrangements in Gaza.