Hamas and Fatah discussed reconciliation in Beijing

Sources in Fatah and Hamas stated at the weekend that they were on their way to Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese authorities to discuss Palestinian reunification.

Chinese authorities now confirm that such talks have taken place.

“Representatives of the Palestinian national liberation movement and the Islamic resistance movement were recently in Beijing,” says a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

– The two parties expressed a political will for reconciliation through dialogue and consultations. They discussed many specific topics and progress was made, says Lin Jian.

According to him, Fatah and Hamas agreed to continue the dialogue in the hope of early Palestinian reunification.

Smoke cloudy

Hamas won the elections in January 2006, the last to be held in the Palestinian territories. However, the US, EU and Israel view the group as a terrorist organization and refused to recognize the government they formed.

In February 2007, Hamas therefore invited Fatah to join a unity government, which Norway was alone in the West to recognise.

The frustration at being met with a cold shoulder, as well as the US arming the Fatah-dominated security forces, resulted a few months later in armed conflict in the Gaza Strip.

It ended with Fatah’s forces being chased out of Gaza, where Hamas and its armed militia have since ruled.

Unpopular president

President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah, established an interim government based in the occupied West Bank.

87-year-old Abbas has served overtime since 2009 and has since refused to hold elections.

Opinion polls suggest that Hamas would once once more have emerged victorious from an election.

Over the years there have been repeated rounds of talks to bring regarding reconciliation between the two rival parties, but these have not come to fruition.

Will crush Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel’s goal is to crush Hamas once and for all following the attack they carried out on southern Israel on October 7.

Over 34,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, large parts of the enclave have been bombed to rubble, and it is highly unclear who will rule there when the war is one day over.

China is now calling for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and a Chinese diplomat last month held talks with the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar.