(PatriotSpotlight.org) – China recently hosted a summit between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, marking a step on the path toward a possible rapprochement.
The groups have been bitter enemies for decades, and in 2007 Hamas violently expelled the latter, who remain the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, out of the Gaza Strip. Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, explained that the groups’ talks included “in-depth and candid dialogue,” hinting at possible progress. Beijing likely hopes this meeting will figure in their wider push to oversee diplomacy in a bid to appear an honest, neutral broker in the Middle East compared to the U.S., despite soaring tensions.
Lin claimed that both sides of the talks agreed to carry on talks with the aim of fostering Palestinian solidarity. While the particular developments of the discussions were not publicly revealed, that the interactions themselves took place marks at least a minor turning point in tackling strife between various Palestinian political groups.
Hamas is the terror group in power in Gaza, while Fatah, who also has terror links, oversees the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank. The division between the two parties deepened after their 2007 civil war, and in the wake of this dispute both factions have faced internal issues and failed to achieve their aims, which generally included destroying Israel.
The timing of their China-based meeting is major, amidst the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, with a siege on Rafah becoming more likely given Jerusalem’s possible evidence that the Hamas leadership are present there. The Beijing-led talks come on the back of previous discussions in both Moscow and Cairo geared toward achieving peace.
While other pushes to broach the divide between Hamas and Fatah have yielded limited progress as major ideological and political contrasts remain, namely that Fatah claims to be secular while Hamas are openly Islamist. Fatah has also been more involved with negotiations with the Jewish State, while Hamas has been more hostile, namely via the recent October 7th 2023 massacre which cost the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis.
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