GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — At a press conference in Gaza City on Sept. 23, eight Palestinian factions presented an initiative to end the Fatah-Hamas split in light of the current threats they see to the Palestinian cause. The current situation, they said, requires national unity to devise a consensus strategy to confront these challenges, among them Israeli policies to deny Palestinian independence and the so-called deal of the century developed by the Donald Trump administration that is believed to take a similar tack.
The eight factions — Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's Party, the Palestinian National Initiative, Palestine Democratic Union, the Popular Front-General Command and As-Saiqa — had on Sept. 20 sent copies of the initiative to the Egyptian government, the Arab League and to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.
