CAIRO: Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah said they reached an agreement on Thursday for the return of their unity government to Gaza ahead of crucial negotiations with Israel next month.

The Palestinian rivals had set up a ‘unity government of independents’ in June but it never took hold, with Pales­tinian president Mahmud Abbas accusing Hamas of running a “parallel” administration as de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas in turn accused Mr Abbas’s Palestinian Autho­rity, headquartered in Ramallah, of not paying its 45,000 employees in Gaza.

“Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gaza Strip,” Jibril Rajoub of Fatah said.

Senior Hamas official Mussa Abu Marzuk and Fatah’s head of delegation, Azzam al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached after two days of talks in Cairo.

The talks were crucial for internal Palestinian divisions to be set aside and to agree on a unified strategy during talks with Israeli negotiators in October.

The October talks, under Egyptian mediation, are aimed at reaching a durable ceasefire after the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas.

The war killed more than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side.

It ended on August 26 when the two sides agreed in Cairo on a ceasefire and to hold future talks on Pales­tinian demands to end an eight-year blockade of Gaza and exchange prisoners in Israeli jails for the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza.

The success of the Hamas-Fatah talks was also crucial ahead of an international donor conference on October 12, to be hosted by Cairo, on the reconstruction of Gaza.

The July-August war caused a vast amount of destruction to homes and infrastructure in densely populated Gaza, leaving more than 100,000 Pales­tinians homeless, according to the United Nations.

“The unity government will supervise the crossings (into Gaza)... to facilitate the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” Abu Marzuk said.

He said the two factions agreed to create a mechanism for construction material to pass into Gaza.

The two movements have also found a “solution .. to the problem of employees”, Abu Marzuk said, referring to the Hamas accusations that the Palestinian Authority had not paid Gaza government employees.

“This meeting was essential because it tackled all the issues and hindrances that obstructed reaching an agreement,” he said, referring to a reconciliation deal inked in April.

The April deal was signed to end years of bitter rivalry between the Fatah faction of Mr Abbas, which dominates the West Bank-based Pales­tinian Authority, and the Islamist movement Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for the past seven years.

Following the deal, the rivals set up a government of independents, the first united administration in seven years, which took office in June. But sharp divisions quickly emerged over the con­trol of Gaza, where the Hamas government stepped down on June 2 but remained the de facto power.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014