The ceremony took place Wednesday at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters in Cairo, according to The Associated Press.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestine Authority said the accord ends “four black years” that hurt national Palestinian interests. He also said at the ceremony that he would soon visit Hamas-held Gaza Strip.
“The Palestinians have decided to turn the dark page of division forever,” Mr. Abbas said as he joined Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal at the Cairo reconciliation ceremony.
“We are certain of success so long as we're united ... Reconciliation clears the way not only to putting the Palestinian house in order but also to a just peace,” said President Abbas, according to Agence-France Presse.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must now “choose between (building) settlements and peace,” and accused Israel of opposing the Palestinian reconciliation accord as “a pretext to avoid peace negotiations.”
President Abbas was countering Mr. Netanyahu's insistence that his Palestinian Authority need to choose between unity with Hamas, which does not recognize Israel, and peace with the Jewish state.
Abbas has refused to resume peace talks with Israel until it restores a moratorium on all settlement construction on occupied territory which the Palestinians want for their promised state.
Hamas chief Meshaal said that his movement would work to achieve the “Palestinian national goal” of a sovereign state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The Islamist group “only fight is with Israel,” Mr. Meshaal said. He pledged that Hamas would work to achieve a sovereign state in Gaza and the West Bank.
The pact provides for the creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government ahead of national elections next year.
Negotiations on the new government line-up were due to start straight after Wednesday’s ceremony, according to AFP.
The accord also calls for the creation of an electoral tribunal and for the release of a number of prisoners held by the rival movements in jails in the West Bank and Gaza.
Among the first tasks to be tackled would be also the establishment of a higher security council tasked with examining ways to integrate Hamas and Fatah’s rival security forces and create a professional security service.
In Gaza City, around 300 people waving Palestinian flags gathered in a festive atmosphere to celebrate the deal, dancing and letting off firecrackers.
“Palestinians want to end the division,” said one banner held aloft by the crowd.
Many participants waved the green flag of Hamas, and a few also raised the yellow flag of the Fatah movement, which has been banned in Gaza ever since the Islamists ousted Fatah loyalists from the territory four years ago.
“This is the day that we’ve all been waiting for,” an announcer shouted to the cheering crowd.
Support rallies were also planned in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Mr. Abbas has his headquarters.
But Israel responded angrily, threatening to withhold the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues until it could be sure no money would go to Hamas.
Ahead of his London talks, Mr. Netanyahu told Britain’s former premier Tony Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy for the major diplomatic players, that Mr. Abbas must “completely cancel” the reconciliation deal which he said had dealt a “hard blow to the peace process.”
The reconciliation deal marks a diplomatic coup for Egypt’s new government, 11 weeks after President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in a popular revolt.
Cairo had tried for more than a year to mediate between Fatah and Hamas but its efforts fell flat.
What does the deal mean?
Reconciliation deal signed by Palestinian factions seen as start of a process.
On April 27, 2011, Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad announced his group’s decision to sign a memorandum of understanding with the leadership of Hamas.
The deal was formally announced in Cairo, and was co-ordinated under the mediation of Egypt's new intelligence director Murad Muwafi.
The signing is seen by many as the start of a process.
The factions are agreeing to the formation of an interim unity government with very limited) powers.
This is not an agreement on security arrangements/Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) reform or other longstanding issues. The factions have agreed to keep the status quo when it comes to issues like who runs the security apparatus. Accordingly, Hamas will continue to run Gaza's security as it has done since 2007.
Three committees will be formed under the deal. Each has a specific issue to work on. That is when the real work starts because they will have to come up with arrangements for all the factions to agree on.
The agreement commits both sides to create an interim cabinet of independent technocrats that will push the Palestinians towards presidential and legislative elections within a year.
The final list of members of these committees is yet to be decided.
source-Al Jajeera ang Al Arabiya
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