CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement has inked a deal with Hamas to end their long-running feud and form an interim government ahead of elections this year, officials said Wednesday.

Israel said the accord, which was brokered in secrecy by Egypt, would not secure peace in the Middle East and urged Abbas to carry on shunning the Islamist movement, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007 after ousting Fatah.

Fatah and Hamas officials said the plan calls for the formation of a single caretaker government in the coming days. The government would administer day-to-day business until new presidential and legislative elections are held in exactly one year.

“We have a comprehensive agreement now. We have agreed on all the issues,” said Azzam al-Ahmad, the chief Fatah negotiator in the reconciliation talks.

The surprise accord came against the backdrop of tumult across the Mideast and followed the ousting in February of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak.

“This agreement is possible because the Egyptian regime has changed. The new administration is taking a balanced position,” said Hani Masri, a political commentator who took part in talks over the past two weeks that lead to the breakthrough.
Ahmad said that under the deal, Fatah and Hamas security forces would be unified and “restructured” under “Arab supervision.”

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader who participated in the talks, said the agreement covered five points, including elections and forming an interim unity government.
“We also discussed activating the Palestinian Legislative Council, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) as well as forming a government consisting of nationalist figures to be agreed upon,” Zahar told Al-Jazeera television in an interview.

He also said Hamas and Fatah agreed to free prisoners held by each side.
Implementation of the accord is due to start following an official signing ceremony in Cairo, expected in early May.
Forging Palestinian unity is regarded as crucial to reviving any prospect for an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to reject a Hamas role in a Palestinian unity government.
“The Palestinian Authority must choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Peace with both is impossible because of the Hamas goal of destroying the state of Israel, which it expresses openly,” he said, pointing to the ongoing rocket attacks.

“I think that the very idea of reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and creates the prospect that Hamas could retake control of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] just like it took control of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Abbas, dismissed these remarks.
“In reaction to Netanyahu’s remarks we say that Palestinian reconciliation and the agreement reached today in Cairo is an internal Palestinian affair,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

Netanyahu, he said, “must choose between peace and settlements.”
Hamas said that Israel has never been interested in Palestinian reconciliation.
“Israel is not concerned with Palestinian reconciliation and has been an impediment to it in the past,” Hamas spokesman Taher al-Noono told journalists in Cairo.

The White House said Hamas was “a terrorist organization” and added that any Palestinian government would have to renounce violence. A U.S. official said it would also have to respect past peace deals and recognize Israel’s right to exist.

The terms of the deal leave some issues murky and others difficult to implement. While Abbas would remain in power under the emerging unity deal, the agreement would require the two prime ministers – Salam Fayyad in the West Bank and Ismail Haniya in Gaza – to resign.

Ahmad said the sides would need to agree on a new prime minister in the coming days, a process that is likely to lead to deep disagreements.
He said the new government would consist solely of political independents in order to not anger the international community.