Hamas: Fatah members can return to Gaza

Prime Minister of the deposed Palestinian government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya reached out to West Bank rivals Fatah on Monday, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation. “The (Hamas) government will allow all Fatah members who are from Gaza and who left the Strip (in 2007) to return, without any preconditions,” apart from those accused of killing Hamas members during intense factional fighting that year, Haniya said. Speaking to reporters after a visit to the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza City, he added the authorities would “release a small number of Fatah members who are imprisoned (in Gaza) for security reasons.” Fatah MPs, who are based in the West Bank, would also be allowed to visit Gaza, Haniya added, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan. Hamas in recent months has reached out to Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as Israel and Egypt have tightened a blockade on the Islamist movement’s Gaza enclave. Haniya spoke via telephone to Fatah leader and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in October, stressing the need for reconciliation and “a return to national unity.”