Amid the unprecedented West Bank celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of Hamas’ founding, questions are arising as to whether the Islamist Movement and Fatah are finally one step closer to reconciling their political differences. 

Just several months after establishing a unity government in 2006, fighting broke out between the two groups’ respective affiliates, which escalated into a brutal series of street battles throughout the Gaza Strip (less so in the West Bank), ending when the Islamic movement routed Fatah’s forces and assumed full control of the coastal enclave.

Several attempts at reconciliation ensued in the aftermath, but in 2011 a general agreement was signed between the two parties in Cairo. It failed to materialize, and a year later, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal signed another agreement in Doha, this time laying out specifics of implementation, but, it too, was largely not implemented on the ground.

Conciliatory language between the two, however, started to surface last month during the height of the most recent conflict in Gaza. Telephone calls were exchanged between Abbas and Meshaal and an unprecedented rally took place in Ramallah’s al-Manara Square, where the Islamic movement’s green banners were visible for the first time in years.