The leaders of the rival Palestinian organizations Fatah and Hamas signed a declaration expressing their intention to end the rivalry between them.   

The announcement, according to Skynews, comes after days of talks in China aimed at ending some 17 years of political strife.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hailed the agreement signed by 14 Palestinian factions, which calls for an interim government of national reconciliation to be formed and take over the governance of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s war with Hamas in the enclave ends.

The two main Palestinian factions have been at odds since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a brief civil war in which it defeated Western-backed Palestinian forces loyal to Abbas.

Efforts since 2007 by Arab countries, led by Egypt, have so far failed to end power-sharing disputes between Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Abbas’s Fatah movement, which forms its backbone. Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the Fatah movement, has previously criticized the Islamist group for the war, while Hamas has accused the Palestinian president of siding with Israel.

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