Rival Palestinian Groups Fatah and Hamas Meet in China - Latest Global News

Rival Palestinian Groups Fatah and Hamas Meet in China

Beijing said the two sides took part in an intensive and open dialogue on promoting Palestinian reconciliation.

Rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas have met in China for talks on possible reconciliation.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing confirmed on Monday that the groups’ representatives had recently met. The respective rulers of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have been competing for years, but Israel’s war in the besieged enclave has spurred further talk of Palestinian reconciliation.

The two groups visited China to engage in a detailed and open dialogue on the prospect, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said. He did not specify when the meeting took place.

“Both sides have fully expressed their political will for reconciliation through dialogue and consultation, discussed many specific issues and made positive progress,” he added.

“China and Palestine have a traditional friendship. We support Palestinian factions to achieve reconciliation and strengthen solidarity through dialogue and consultation. We will continue to work actively on this.”

Representatives of both groups and other political factions met in Moscow earlier this year to discuss the possible formation of a Palestinian unity government.

After defeating Fatah in 2007, Hamas has been the de facto ruler of Gaza since 2007, when it defeated President Mahmoud Abbas’s long-dominant party in parliamentary elections and drove its rival from the enclave because it refused to accept the result to recognize the vote.

Since then, the two groups have ruled the occupied Palestinian territories – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

China has always been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the Israel-Gaza war began in October, when a Hamas offensive led to the deaths of about 1,139 people, according to Israel.

Hamas and other armed groups also took about 250 prisoners during the offensive, and dozens of people are still being held in Gaza.

In response, Israeli forces have killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, in the coastal enclave, according to the Health Ministry.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an “international peace conference” to end the war.

Sharing Is Caring:

Leave a Comment