Fatah and Hamas signed a unity deal following reconciliation talks in Beijing. Image source: Ahmed Abu Hameeda, via Wikimedia Commons.
Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Beijing on Tuesday 23 July to end division and strengthen Palestinian unity.
The Beijing Declaration sets the groundwork for Palestinian governance over Gaza once Israel’s military assault on the territory concludes.
14 Palestinian factions — including Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian National Initiative — signed the accord after three days of reconciliation talks hosted by China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “The core outcome is that the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people.”
“An agreement has been reached on post-Gaza war governance and the establishment of a provisional national reconciliation government,” Wang said.
The meeting took place amid efforts to mediate a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel after nine months of war in Gaza.
Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, advocates for armed resistance against Israeli occupation and led the 7 October attack on Israel in October last year.
Fatah controls both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which partially governs the West Bank with limited autonomy.
The two factions have been in conflict since Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in Gaza and expelled Fatah from the territory after a brief civil war in 2007.
Previous efforts have failed to reconcile the factions and unite the Palestinian territories under one governance.
Palestinian National Initiative Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouti told Al Jazeera the war in Gaza was the “main factor” motivating the two side to put aside their differences.
“There is no other way now but for Palestinian to be unified and struggle together against this terrible injustice,” said Barghouti.
“The most important thing now is to not only sign the agreement, but to implement it.”
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said UN Secretary-General António Guterres “very much welcomes the signing of the Beijing Declaration.”
“The Secretary-General encourages all factions to overcome their differences through dialogue and urges them to follow up on the commitments that were made in Beijing,” said Dujarric.
Israeli officials have voiced vehement opposition to the agreement and vowed to crush Hamas.
Since the war broke out last October, at least 39,090 Palestinian have been killed in Gaza — including over 15,000 children — with more than 90,417 injured and more than 10,000 missing.
