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Hamas and Fatah, two rival Palestinian factions, came out with a joint statement Thursday, vowing to unite against Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty to a number of West Bank areas.
They urged other Palestinian factions to see this moment as a “historic opportunity” to unite in a “struggle” to set up a Palestinian state.
“We have no enemy but Israel,” they said in a joint press conference, represented, respectively, by Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah official, and Salah al-Arouri, the founder of Hamas’s military wing.
Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group in control of the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the more secular-minded backbone of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, have been at loggerheads since 2007.
The summer of 2007 saw Hamas fighter stage a coup against the Fatah and take control over the restive coastal enclave.
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