Al-Jazeera.com :
Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have reached a partial understanding that should put plans of a unified government back on track, after being hampered by fresh rifts that followed the latest war on Gaza.
Following two-day meetings in Cairo, officials from the rival groups agreed on Thursday that the unity government, run by President Mahmoud Abbas, would take control of the war-stricken Gaza Strip.
“It was a must to move quickly and to get rid of all kinds of obstacles facing the national consensus government,” Azzad al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah delegation, said.
“We discussed the importance of starting the Gaza reconstruction following the 2009, 2012 and 2014 Israeli aggressions against Gaza.”
Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) said in a study recently that the reconstruction work would cost $7.8bn, two and a half times Gaza’s gross domestic product, including $2.5bn for the reconstruction of homes and $250mn for energy.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Gaza, said that the security aspect of that agreement remained the toughest.
“We have heard these pledges before and Hamas had previously told the PA that they are ready to receive security forces to police over the region, and that they’re willing to give up the borders,” our correspondent explained, adding that these forces never arrived, and that the PA has accused Hamas of delaying the process.
