Hamas fully accepts initiative to end inter-Palestinian division

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says it has “unconditionally and fully” endorsed a recently-proposed initiative by major Palestinian factions to heal the existing inter-Palestinian division and achieve national unity.

News ID: 447343

Date: 28 September 2019 - 10:34

RNA - In a statement announced during a meeting with leaders of major factions in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Hamas leadership said it had received on September 19 a national vision for putting an end to the current rift.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas Political Bureau, affirmed that the Hamas leadership both at home and abroad studied the proposal out of its responsibility and great keenness to achieve national unity among Palestinians and decided to accept it “unconditionally and fully.”

“In recognition of the factions’ sincere and honest efforts and out of our awareness of the dangers and challenges surrounding the [Palestinian] cause and threatening its constants, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, declares its approval of the factions’ initiative while rising above its observations on the initiative in order to make it succeed,” the Hamas statement further read, as quoted by the Palestine Information Center.

The resistance movement also pledged to make every effort and remove all obstacles for the success of the initiative.

Early this month, Haniyeh warned that the Israeli regime was seeking rifts among Palestinians and Palestinian resistance groups to distract them from their main priorities.

The senior Palestinian official said Israel was after gaining benefits from insecurity in Gaza in order to thrive in September elections.

Palestinians have held weekly rallies along the Gaza fence to protest the siege on the enclave and demand the right for the refugees who were forced to leave during the 1948 creation of Israel to return to their homes.

At least 307 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in Gaza on March 30, 2018. Over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.

Gaza has been under the Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards.

Israel has also launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.

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