Fatah

Even so, and despite last-minute quarrels, Hamas and Fatah appear now to be trying to stand together against their Israeli foe.

Pollsters, who have not always been accurate in their predictions of Palestinian voting, say Fatah should win.

He said there would be a renewed attempt to reconcile Hamas and its rival Fatah, which counts Abbas among its leaders.

A year-and-a-half later, after a short-lived spell in coalition with Fatah, Hamas violently took over the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, with the pressures on them suspended, Hamas and Fatah would have a year to thrash out a deal on a joint government.

The second stage, if it is clear that Hamas accepts Fatah's peaceful approach, would be to pull it into a revived peace process.

Her father, Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, said they later learned through a courier that she had given birth to a daughter named Safiya.

Hamas did not allow Fatah delegates from Gaza to attend the congress, although they were able to vote by telephone.

He said Fatah is ready to take control of the border.

Fatah then won backing from the United States to turn the presidential guard into an elite force to counter that of Hamas.

But a few days ago, leaders from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party said that they had lost hope in the American administration.

A year later, it bloodily ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip, the smaller chunk of a proposed Palestinian state.

A year and a half after its election win, Hamas violently evicted Mr Abbas's Fatah from the Gaza Strip.

He said Fatah supports the peace process, but he warned that if diplomacy fails, the Palestinians could return to armed resistance.

The infighting is some of the most serious since Hamas routed Fatah forces in the Gaza civil war a year ago.

But the squeeze on Gaza has led to what Israel wanted to avoid: co-operation between Hamas and its rival party, Fatah.

A year later, in Gaza, Hamas violently ousted Fatah, its secular rival that had long ruled the Palestinian roost.

Yet, in this week's standoff with the jihadist Arab group known as Fatah al-Islam, the Army has shown that it has muscle.

The raid is part of an intensifying Hamas crackdown on Fatah. Since the bombing, more than 200 Fatah activists have been arrested.

It is possible that the popular jailed Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, may play a role in future developments.

Proceedings in the council have been tense since the killing in July of Abdel Fatah Younis, the then commander of the anti-Qaddafi forces.

But making Mr Dahlan a scapegoat would give Hamas an easy way out of the stand-off, and Fatah has decided not to give it one.

Abbas is expected to serve until elections - a date which Hamas and Fatah have not been able to agree upon.

The Palestinian Authority hopes that a severely weakened Hamas would be forced by Egypt into a process of reconciliation with Fatah.

The inclusion of Mr Dahlan in Fatah's Central Committee is not likely to help reconciliation.

The new leadership is not expected to shake up the party radically or alter Fatah's position towards the Israelis or the peace process.

But if Marwan Barghouti, a charismatic Fatah man now in an Israeli jail, could run, he would handily beat them both.

The blogger says members of Hamas were dancing around a dead body of a Fatah member, and that Islamic Republic' TV is silent on it.

In any event, Hamas is still isolated from the main diplomatic game, as Fatah's more emollient negotiators strive to make headway.

Mubarak has also held reconciliation talks between the Fatah Party and Hamas in an effort to create a unity government.

The Fatah faction shrinks from elections, unable to agree on a leader to replace Mr Abbas, who wants to retire.

Ms. Wadi said that when she visited her mother, her two brothers fought bitterly because one backs Hamas and the other backs Fatah.

Still, members of the Fatah parliamentary bloc refused to participate in the new cabinet, saying it was formed without proper consultation.

Tensions between and Fatah have been escalating all week as the two sides fight for control of the territory.

The Hamas-Fatah deal is good news, because peace between Palestinians could be a stepping stone on the road to peace with Israel.

So why make more enemies around the world by taking sides in these interminable struggles among Israel, Hamas, Fatah, and their neighbors?

In rallies at Mr Abbas's West Bank headquarters, the yellow flags of his Fatah group are increasingly speckled with Hamas's green.

The groups, including Hamas and Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades , say their militants will not be armed during the vote.

It says he may continue to co-ordinate with Israel over security in the West Bank, and promises to let Fatah resume politics in Gaza.

Qaddoura Fares, one of Fatah's younger leaders in Ramallah, lets out a short, dry laugh. "If only! "

The armed wing of Fatah has claimed responsibility on Saturday night for the early attack on Israeli troops in east Jerusalem.

Hamas ousted the Fatah forces of U. S. -backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a civil war two years ago.

Fatah, you'll recall, was the dominant party in the old Palestine Liberation Organization.

But Fatah was by then in such a mess that it could not even unify its lists of candidates.

This has raised hopes of reconciliation with its rival, Fatah, which controls the West Bank.

They attacked a stronghold of a clan aligned with the rival Fatah faction, and gunmen there returned fire.

As he welcomed the prisoners, he again promised to reconcile Fatah with Hamas.

Underpinning Mr Fayyad's rule is a Palestinian security corps, freshly trained by the Americans, with scant allegiance to Fatah's old guard.

Some suggested he had deliberately made the remark in the hope that the deal with Fatah would be scuttled, since he will lose his job.

However, Fatah 19, suddenly announced that there are still serious differences between the two sides, meeting was postponed indefinitely.

Later, while living in Kuwait, he created the 'Fatah' movement, which became the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization the PLO.

In his view, Mr Abbas and Fatah have done so with humiliating frequency.

The Fatah Party of President Abbas has urged him not to continue direct peace talks unless Israel reinstates the freeze.

The siege also puts pressure on Hamas to become reconciled with Fatah and return to the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority.

Indeed, police loyal to Fatah staged a convoy in protest against the new government's orders to them not to work with Hamas.

June: Battle of Gaza begins, resulting in Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah, who stay in control of the occupied West Bank.

Since then, Fatah has sat back as Israel, increasingly criticised by most of the rest of the world, has blockaded the territory.

Hamas's overthrow of the more secular Fatah organization in Gaza in 2007 is part of a regionwide civil war between Islamists and modernists.

This week's agreement between Fatah and Hamas to hold fresh Palestinian elections presents one immediate test.

Nor is it to pretend, as George Bush did, that Fatah can make peace with Israel as though Hamas did not exist.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas says it will honor an unofficial truce with Israel after signing a reconciliation deal with Fatah.

Hamas blamed Fatah for the explosion. Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya is the father of a gunman who was wounded in the blast.

The Palestinians are bitterly divided between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

In the West Bank, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority has broken up several solidarity demonstrations since combat began.

This time members of Fatah, small centrist parties and independents have been given key ministries.

Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now heads a more moderate government in the West Bank.

Palestinian voters blame the corruption and ineptitude rampant in Fatah and the PA mostly on a small group of Arafat loyalists.

Unlike Fatah's leaders who could flee from Gaza to neighbouring states when they lost power, Hamas officials have nowhere to go.

Lebanese security officials say troops have killed the suspected leader of al-Qaeda inspired militant Islamist group Fatah al-Islam.

and the dispatch of Abu Jihad, a senior Palestinian official and founder of the Fatah movement, by a squad that swooped into Tunis in 1988.

Several of Fatah's top people in Gaza have been out of the strip for weeks.

But the new around of talks with the Fatah on movement on forming a unity government due to begin later this month.

It reviles its secular rival, Fatah, for its supposed treachery in accepting the Jewish state and the principle of Palestine's partition.

Indeed, Mr Abbas has also promised fresh elections, in the hope that, thanks to improvements on the West Bank, his Fatah group will win.

Accounting work, law enforcement is lax, deprived of fatah WeiFaBuJiu the phenomenon is quite serious.

benghazi, very very heavy fighting in the center of City as the Fury of Obeidi tribe unleashed after watching Corpse of abd fatah younis.

Fatah's fans flock to Salafist mosques on Fridays in part to spare them from having to recite a weekly prayer for Gaza's Hamas rulers.

The security forces of Fatah and Hamas will each retain control of their fiefs in the West Bank and Gaza respectively.

June 2007, Hamas seized the Gaza Strip by force, the actual control, and control the formation of the West Bank, Fatah confrontation.

In retaliation for the Gaza arrests, Fatah forces have rounded up dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank.

Egypt is furious at Hamas's recent refusal to renew talks with Fatah about restoring a Palestinian unity government.

Unlike Fatah, Al Qaeda has nothing to gain from appearing to support the Israeli attacks.

Hamas, Fatah has asked first to sign the Cairo document, and then the two sides discussed reservations.

Gaza residents are bracing for clashes after Fatah and other Palestinian groups called for sunset street prayers despite a Hamas ban.

The immediate aim is to shore up Fatah and avert a Gaza-style collapse in the much larger West Bank.

There were also the predictable audiotapes extolling Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Fatah, the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by Yasser Arafat, has just completed its first general congress in 20 years.

Egypt has been mediating between rival Palestinian factions - Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

Not until last year did the Islamists feel ready to challenge Fatah in parliamentary elections.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath says the infighting is counter-productive and harms Palestinian interests.

Another popular theory is that Hamas wanted to settle scores with Mr Dahlan personally, more than with Fatah as a whole.

Fatah and Hamas have inked a reconciliation pact in Cairo, Egypt, aimed at ending their four-year rift.

Fatah, however, never fully relinquished control.

Egypt is anxious to have a quick solution to the border crisis and has been pressing Fatah to reach a compromise with Hamas.

But on the very day of the signing, Hamas executed a member of Fatah that a court in Gaza convicted of collaborating with Israel.

Opinion polls show Fatah well ahead, but pollsters reckon many Hamas sympathisers are shy of identifying themselves.

Fatah, meanwhile, seemed unprepared.

Fatah militants also abducted Hamas official Mohammed Ghazal in the West Bank town of Nablus.

Fatah and Hamas hold incompatible views about the biggest dilemma facing the Palestinians.

The Palestinian authorities, Hamas and Fatah alike, have thumped them.

These improvements in the daily lives of West Bankers have bolstered the ruling Fatah party.

Their territories are now split between control by Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Third, it wants to rejoin the Palestinian Authority on equal or superior terms to Fatah, which it defeated in the 2006 elections.

Mr. Netanyahu's comments came as the Palestinian Fatah movement held its first congress in 20 years.

Polls show that Hamas's support, which fell after its showdown with Fatah, has stabilised.

Does the creation of this government mark a moderate step by Hamas or a surrender by Fatah?

Despite the pledge, a Fatah election worker was killed in the West Bank town of Nablus overnight.

The Palestinians' Fatah party is soon to have its first congress in 20 years, perhaps producing a better crop of leaders.

In the 2006, when Hamas beat Fatah in a general election, many mosques doubled as offices for Hamas.

Yet Fatah too once called for the destruction of Israel, and changed its mind.

Fatah, to become electable again, needs to end its infighting and corruption.

But the gulf between Hamas and Fatah is wide under the crucial issue of how Palestine should confront the Israeli occupation.

Fatah thinks it could recover from its defeat at Hamas's hands in elections 18 months ago.

Hamas has also won Fatah's agreement to share the running of Gaza's football federation.

Operating in exile from Damascus, he has played a critical role in fraught relations with Israel and Fatah.

In June 2007, after a brief but bloody factional war, Hamas seized control of Gaza, routing the pro-Fatah forces loyal to Mr. Abbas.

But Hamas and Fatah are showing little willingness to compromise.

Abu Zuhri said Hamas has informed Fatah that the nomination of Fayyad is unacceptable.

Other forces, notionally under the new Hamas government's orders, stayed largely loyal to their Fatah commanders.

Fatah [formally] recognised Israel but what did it get [in return]?

The depressing thing about the rise of Hamas and the decline of the Fatah wing of the PLO is that it reverses this decades-long trend.

Nor can the rival Fatah party risk returning to Gaza courtesy of Israel's tanks.

The second is for Israel, Egypt and Fatah to accept Hamas as a partner in managing Gaza's borders.

But not all the victims are from Hamas. Some are civilians and there are security officers who belong to Fatah.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007, after seizing control from Fatah forces loyal to President Abbas.

Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Fatah?

And if a deal is to stick, the rival Palestinian groups, Fatah and Hamas, must settle their own differences.

It promised to storm and take control of basis used by its rival faction Fatah and it's delivering on that promise building by building.

Certainly, there has been some score-settling within Fatah itself.

In the summer of 2007, Hamas took over Gaza after a quick but bloody clash with U. S. -trained forces from the Fatah faction.

Fatah also has bitter grievances against Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007.

The Palestinian Movement Fatah is holding a big conference in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the first of its kind for 20 years.

In addition to the arrests of Fatah members, Hamas policemen set up checkpoints on major roads and searched cars.

Letting Hamas win Gaza has a certain logic to Fatah.

Amal al-Fatah bin Laden's fifth wife was screaming in Arabic.

Corrupt and unpopular, Fatah could not even produce a united list for last year's Palestinian election.

Fatah officials have asked for more, but to no avail.

But Fatah has little to bargain with.

They seem powerless in the face of a conflict that has been building since Hamas ousted Fatah from the PA in last year's election.

Unity talks with Fatah are on hold.

With Hamas inside Iran's tent and Fatah in America's, the Palestinians are now facing a paralysing schism.

The group seized control of the Gaza Strip last year, routing Mr. Abbas's Fatah forces in a Palestinian civil war.

In Fatah's view, they are elastic.

PALESTINIANS have been on the brink of civil war ever since Hamas swept the old Fatah elite from power last year.

Egypt, on the other hand, wants both the European Union and President Abbas' Fatah faction to control the crossings before they can reopen.

Before embracing their Fatah rivals, the Islamists must agree among themselves

Hamas Arrests Fatah Supporters After Deadly Gaza Bombing