Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Abbas To Lead Unity Cabinet

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head a Fatah-Hamas unity caretaker cabinet, Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshal said in a joint announcement on Monday, in a move that could pave for a long-sought-after reconciliation between the rival factions.

“We are serious, both Fatah and Hamas, in healing the wounds and ending the chapter of division and reinforcing and accomplishing reconciliation,” Meshal said in remarks televised live by Al Jazeera from Qatar.

He said the Palestinians wanted to accomplish unity and move forward “to resist the enemy [Israel] and achieve our national goal.”

Abbas, head of the secular Fatah organization, promised that this effort will be implemented in the shortest time possible”.

The Doha Agreement stipulates that the unity caretaker government will be composed of non-affiliated technocrats, and its mission will be to start Gaza’s rehabilitation and to prepare for a general Palestinian election for both president and parliament.

A second meeting between the two Palestinian leaders has been set to February 18 in Cairo, where Abbas and Meshal will be expected to set the date for the upcoming vote.

For more, go to haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.