Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei (sitting 3rd L) reads out a statement during a news conference in Cairo, February 26, 2009. A dozen Palestinian groups launched a long-awaited dialogue on Thursday and laid out a plan to tackle key issues that could reunite Palestinians after 18 months of schism between Gaza and the West Bank. Sitting beside Qurei is Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk (3rd R) and Palestinian delegate Mustafa al-Barghouthi (2nd L). REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

Palestinian factions have agreed to establish five committees to address key issues for unity.
The Egyptian-brokered talks in Cairo between 12 different groups began on Thursday and follow 18 months of disharmony between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“The atmosphere was positive,” Walid al-Awad, a member of the political bureau of the communist People’s Party, said.

The five committees established at the meeting will deal with issues including the formation of a unity goverrnment, rebuilding institutions, establishing presidential and legislative elections, security services, and reconciliation.

The immediate release of political detainees in Gaza and the West Bank was also promised.

Al-Awad said that the committees would begin working on March 10 for, at most, the remainder of the month.

At a news conference after the talks Ahmed Qurei, a senior Fatah official, said that the moves were a “national necessity and a response to the aspirations of our people.”

The factions said that they hoped a unity government could reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s 23-day offensive which ended last month.

Egyptian mediators said they hoped that a unity deal could be made before an Arab summit in Qatar in late March.

However, it was unclear what type of cabinet would emerge, with Hamas, who rules the Gaza Strip, differing with Fatah, in the West Bank, on how to deal with Israel.

Amr el-Khaky, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Cairo, said: “What we see today is a real breakthrough regardless of the differences that remain.

“The agreement today on these five committees and that these committees will take decisions unanimously, it won’t be a voting system … and every party will respect it is a breakthrough,” he said.

El-Khaky said that Hamas had refused that presidential and legislative elections be held on January 20, 2010, because they did not want to give Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, a mandate.

However, he said that Hamas did agree on the necessity of holding the elections by that date.

“So they are coming nearer to each other, they are compromising,” he said.

“And these compromises are painful to both of them after these hostilities and that is why this is the beginning of a breakthrough.”

Hamas so far refuses to renounce violence against Israel, while Fatah favors negotiation.

“There is an agreement on a government of national unity,” Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official, said.

“The nature of this cabinet is up to the committee … formed.”

Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in a coup in June 2007.

Al Jazeera and agencies