Finally, the Palestinian factions have signed an accord in Algiers to end 15 years of discord by holding elections within a year. The agreement is an outcome of months-long talks mediated by Algeria.
The Palestinian factions _ Fatah and Hamas signed the agreement on Oct 13 to end a rift between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Hamas that has split Palestinian governance in besieged Gaza from the occupied West Bank.
A senior Fatah official Azzam al Ahmad said the agreement “will be implemented and will not remain a dead letter”, describing the years of division as a “cancer.”
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh also said it was “a day of joy in Palestine and Algeria and for those who love the Palestinian cause, but a day of sadness for the Zionist entity (Israel)”.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune hailed the agreement as “historic.”
He noted in a speech at the signing ceremony in the Algerian capital’s Palace of Nations that Yasser Arafat had used the same building to announce the independence of the State of Palestine in 1988.
The deal was signed with pomp and ceremony in the presence of foreign ambassadors and a military band that played the Palestinian and Algerian national anthems.
“We appreciate Algeria’s contributions to the intra-Palestinian reconciliation process that Türkiye has always supported,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
