President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority met Saturday with officials of Hamas for the first time in a year in an effort to reconcile the two movements whose bitter rivalry has kept the West Bank and Gaza apart and blocked any real hope of Palestinian statehood.
Mr. Abbas met with seven Hamas officials from the West Bank in his Ramallah office. He told them that the way forward was for his Fatah-dominated authority and the Hamas government of Gaza to agree on the formation of a temporary independent government with one goal: to hold legislative and presidential elections in the next six months and then rebuild Gaza.
Mr. Abbas wants to go to Gaza to sign such a deal with the leaders of Hamas. He has not set foot in Gaza in the four years since a brief, bloody civil war there sent him and his Fatah colleagues fleeing to the West Bank. That left the two halves of a future state of Palestine unable to speak to each other.
“We discussed his proposed visit to Gaza, the internal Palestinian situation and regional developments,” said Aziz Dweik, a senior Hamas figure who is officially speaker of Parliament and who led the delegation. “We discussed all these issues in a positive atmosphere full of openness on how to help this visit succeed.”
Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in early 2006, and, for a brief time, Fatah and Hamas had a national unity government. But tensions between them led to the fighting and a break in communications.
Since then, the Palestinian Authority has focused more on cutting a deal with Israel on Palestinian statehood. But the negotiations have broken down over Israeli settlement building and other issues, with little immediate prospect of revival. With all the upheaval in the Arab world, many Palestinians say their priority now is national reconciliation between the movements.
The prospect makes the Israeli government deeply unhappy because Hamas refuses to accept Israel’s existence and is backed by Iran. Israel fought a three-week war against Hamas two years ago. In addition, tensions have risen between Israel and Hamas recently as Israel carries out military operations in Gaza and Hamas rockets and mortars are fired at Israeli towns.
On Saturday, the Israeli Army said, 16 military-use projectiles had been fired at Israel, including two longer-range missiles aimed at the city of Beersheba in the Negev Desert.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Abbas, said by telephone that the idea of moving toward new elections is “the demand of the Palestinian people following what is happening in the Arab world. We need to go to the people again.”
Mr. Abu Rudeineh said the plan would be for a group of independent technocrats approved by both sides to govern the West Bank and Gaza until elections. The winner would then lead a united Palestinian Authority.
The thought that Hamas might win or play a significant role sends a hard chill down the Israeli spine, and Israeli officials have made it clear that they are not eager to see a reconciliation. Mr. Dweik said Mr. Abbas had told the Hamas officials that if Israel did not permit him to cross into Gaza from Israel, he would do so from Egypt.
In Gaza, Hamas responded cautiously. “We respect Mr. Dweik greatly in his capacity as the head of the Parliament, but we think the meeting should be between the leaders of Hamas and Fatah as parties,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman.
Another Hamas lawmaker in Gaza went further, demanding “good-will steps” from Mr. Abbas to prove that he is serious about going to Gaza. “Abbas must release Hamas supporters,” the legislator, Ismail Ashqar, said in remarks published by Palestine Now, a Hamas news Web site.
Mr. Dweik added that in addition to the Gaza visit, the two sides discussed ending the Palestinian Authority’s arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank and a mutual end to media incitement against each other.
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