RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, July  15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Senior
officials from the rival Palestinian groups Hamas, which is at war with Israel,
and Fatah have agreed to meet in Beijing this month in a renewed bid for
reconciliation, officials said Monday.

The Hamas delegation is to be headed by its Qatar-based political chief
Ismail Haniyeh, while the Fatah representation will be led by deputy head
Mahmud Alul, Fatah sources said.

Hamas had no immediate comment.

The two groups have been bitter rivals since Hamas fighters ejected Fatah
from the Gaza Strip after deadly clashes that followed Hamas's resounding
victory in a 2006 election.

After seizing control of Gaza in 2007, the Islamist Hamas movement has
ruled the territory ever since.

The secularist Fatah movement controls the Palestinian Authority which has
partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Several reconciliation bids have failed, but calls have grown since the
Hamas October 7 attacks on Israel set off the Gaza war, with violence also
soaring in the West Bank where Fatah is based.

China hosted Fatah and Hamas in April but a meeting scheduled for June was
postponed.

The representatives are to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing on July
20 and July 21, according to Fatah's central committee deputy secretary general
Sabri Saidam.

Before that, a meeting of the two groups could take place, he added.

The goal, said Saidam, "is to end the state of division with a commitment
to past agreements and agreeing on a relationship between the Palestinian
groups in the next stage."

Another Fatah executive member also said a joint Fatah-Hamas meeting could
be held in Beijing before the official agenda starts.

China has positioned itself as a more neutral actor on the
Israel-Palestinian conflict than its rival the United States, advocating for a
two-state solution while also maintaining good ties with Israel.