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Hamas has called on the Fatah movement to hold direct talks following the conclusion of Fatah's eighth general congress, which opened Thursday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, urging the rival faction to agree on a unified "national strategy" at what it described as a critical juncture for the Palestinian cause.
Senior Hamas member Husam Badran said the three-day Fatah gathering represented "an opportunity to achieve a shift in Palestinian internal national relations," and proposed a formal meeting between the two movements once the congress wraps up.
"It is high time to rise above divisions and the consequences of the past, and look to the present and future on the basis of national partnership and collective responsibility," Badran said.
The appeal comes against the backdrop of a political rupture that has defined Palestinian governance for nearly two decades. Since 2007, Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip while the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and dominated by Fatah, administers parts of the West Bank.
The split followed a brief and violent power struggle after Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, producing a governance divide that has complicated efforts at both internal reconciliation and international diplomacy.
Badran framed the Fatah congress as an opportunity to confront what he called "plans of the criminal Zionist enemy, which seeks to eliminate the Palestinian cause by exploiting international and regional circumstances."
He called on Fatah to enter a direct dialogue after the congress to reach consensus "on all issues concerning our people during this sensitive phase."
The two factions have held multiple rounds of reconciliation talks over the years, most recently in China in 2024, but none have produced significant or lasting results on the ground. The persistent failure of these efforts has left Palestinian political institutions fragmented, undermining both governance in the occupied territories and the Palestinians' collective standing in international negotiations.
Whether the Fatah congress, expected to conclude over the next two days, will produce conditions conducive to a new round of talks remains to be seen. Hamas's public overture, however, signals at minimum a desire to use the moment as political leverage to push for broader national alignment.
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