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Rivals Hamas and Fatah Sign Declaration to Form Future Govt as War Rages in Gaza

(L-R) Mahmoud al-Aloul, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Palestinian organization and political party Fatah, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, senior member Hamas, attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23, 2024. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP)
(L-R) Mahmoud al-Aloul, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Palestinian organization and political party Fatah, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, senior member Hamas, attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23, 2024. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP)
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Rivals Hamas and Fatah Sign Declaration to Form Future Govt as War Rages in Gaza

(L-R) Mahmoud al-Aloul, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Palestinian organization and political party Fatah, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, senior member Hamas, attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23, 2024. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP)
(L-R) Mahmoud al-Aloul, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Palestinian organization and political party Fatah, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, senior member Hamas, attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23, 2024. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP)

Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in Beijing to form a government together, the groups said Tuesday, in the latest attempt at resolving a longstanding rivalry and offering a potential scenario for the rule of Gaza after the war with Israel.

Previous similar declarations have failed, raising doubts about whether the China-sponsored negotiations might lead to reconciliation between Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years, and Fatah, the main force in the US-backed Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank.

The two groups issued a joint statement announcing the deal but gave no details on how or when the government would be formed, saying only that it would be done "by agreement among the factions."

Both sides said the accord, which provided no guarantees, was only an initial step, and they promised to follow up on previous reconciliation agreements signed in 2011 and 2022.

Israel swiftly denounced the pact. The US and other Western countries have refused to accept any Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless it expressly recognizes Israel — a factor that has helped wreck past unity attempts, along with the factions' own competition for power.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV announced that the two sides and other, smaller Palestinian factions signed the declaration on "ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity." The agreement offered only broad outlines for how they would work together.

"There is an opportunity … but it is not big, because it lacks a specific timetable for implementation," said Hani Al-Masry, an expert on Palestinian reconciliation affairs.

The declaration comes at a sensitive time, as the war in Gaza rages into its 10th month and as Israel and Hamas are weighing an internationally backed ceasefire proposal that would wind down the war and free dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

One of the thorniest issues is the question of who will run Gaza after the war. The unity efforts are in part motivated by Palestinians' desire to offer a potential vision for postwar rule.

But Israel vehemently opposes any role for Hamas, which it vowed to destroy after the fighters’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. It also has rejected US calls for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the fighting ends, though it has not presented a cohesive postwar vision of its own.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah has been deeply reluctant to share power with its longtime rival. Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. The following year, amid escalating tensions, Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza. It has ruled the impoverished coastal enclave ever since.

During the current war, Hamas officials have said the group does not want to return to ruling Gaza and that it advocates for forming a government of technocrats to be agreed upon by the various Palestinian factions. That government would then prepare for elections in Gaza and the West Bank, with the intention of forming a unified government.

Reacting to the announcement out of China, Israel’s foreign minister said no joint governance between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza will take place "because Hamas’ rule will be crushed."

Officials from Fatah, Hamas and 12 other factions met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in talks that started Sunday, according to a post on social media platform Weibo from Chinese TV network CGTN.

In the statement, all the factions including Hamas said they were committed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Hamas, whose original charter directly called for Israel’s destruction, has said it would accept a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 war borders but refuses to officially recognize Israel.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, has recognized Israel and works within the framework of peace deals signed in the early 1990s. Those deals were supposed to lead to an eventual state in the West Bank and Gaza, but talks have been defunct for years, leaving the authority in charge of only isolated West Bank enclaves. Many Palestinians view the authority as corrupt, out of touch and a subcontractor for Israel because of their joint security coordination.

The unity announcement is based on widening the membership of the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization, including Hamas, said Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesperson.

"It’s a long way ahead, and most of it will be implemented after a possible ceasefire," he added.

Hamas members have never been part of the PLO, the umbrella group of Palestinian factions that undergirds the Palestinian Authority. Husam Badran, a Hamas political official based in Qatar, called the agreement a further "positive step towards achieving Palestinian national unity."

US President Joe Biden's administration envisions a revamped Palestinian Authority ruling postwar Gaza and has sought reforms that might make it a viable presence in the war-ravaged territory. Israel rejected that idea.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed group allied with Hamas, issued a statement after the talks saying it still "rejects any formula that includes recognition of Israel explicitly or implicitly" and that it demanded the withdrawal of the PLO's recognition of Israel.

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Arab World

Axios: US Plans Meeting for Gaza 'Board of Peace' in Washington on Feb 19

Trump and leaders and representatives of the countries participating in the signing of the founding charter of the “Peace Council” in Davos (AFP - Archive)
Trump and leaders and representatives of the countries participating in the signing of the founding charter of the “Peace Council” in Davos (AFP - Archive)
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Axios: US Plans Meeting for Gaza 'Board of Peace' in Washington on Feb 19

Trump and leaders and representatives of the countries participating in the signing of the founding charter of the “Peace Council” in Davos (AFP - Archive)
Trump and leaders and representatives of the countries participating in the signing of the founding charter of the “Peace Council” in Davos (AFP - Archive)

The White House is planning the first leaders meeting for President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" in relation to Gaza on February 19, Axios reported on Friday, citing a US official and diplomats from four countries that are on the board.

The plans for the meeting, which would also be a fundraising conference for Gaza reconstruction, are in early stages and could still change, Axios reported.

The meeting is planned to be held at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, the report added, noting that Israeli Prime ‌Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‌is scheduled to meet Trump at the ‌White ⁠House on ‌February 18, a day before the planned meeting.

The White House and the US State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

In late January, Trump launched the board that he will chair and which he says will aim to resolve global conflicts, leading to many experts being concerned that such a board could undermine the United Nations, Reuters said.

Governments around ⁠the world have reacted cautiously to Trump's invitation to join that initiative. While some ‌of Washington's Middle Eastern allies have joined, many ‍of its traditional Western allies have ‍thus far stayed away.

A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in ‍mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed off.

Under Trump's Gaza plan revealed late last year, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said ⁠it would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's affairs resembled a colonial structure and have criticized the board for not including a Palestinian.

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with over 550 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since the truce began in October.

Israel's assault on Gaza since late 2023 has killed over 71,000 Palestinians, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza's entire population.

Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defense after Hamas-led ‌militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in a late 2023 attack.

Arab World

A Man Detonates Explosive Belt during Arrest Attempt in Iraq, Injuring 2 Security Members

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
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A Man Detonates Explosive Belt during Arrest Attempt in Iraq, Injuring 2 Security Members

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said.

The raid was being conducted in the al-Khaseem area in Qaim district that borders Syria, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The official added that “preliminary information” confirms that no members of the security forces were killed, while two personnel were injured and transferred for medical treatment, The Associated Press said.

Iraq’s National Security Agency said in a statement that its members besieged a hideout of an ISIS group security official and two of his bodyguards. One bodyguard ignited his explosives belt, killing him. It gave no further details.

ISIS once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014. The extremist group was defeated on the battlefield in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019 but its sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.

In December, two US service members and an American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blamed on ISIS. The US carried out strikes on Syria days later in retaliation.

US and Iraqi authorities in January began transferring hundreds of the nearly 9,000 ISIS members held in jails run by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria to Iraq, where Iraqi authorities plan to prosecute them.

Arab World

UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon Allege Surge in Israeli Violence toward Them

United Nations Spanish UNIFIL forces arrive to inspect chalets, after the Israeli army reportedly booby-trapped and blew them up at dawn, on the outskirts of the town of al-Khiam, southern Lebanon on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
United Nations Spanish UNIFIL forces arrive to inspect chalets, after the Israeli army reportedly booby-trapped and blew them up at dawn, on the outskirts of the town of al-Khiam, southern Lebanon on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
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UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon Allege Surge in Israeli Violence toward Them

United Nations Spanish UNIFIL forces arrive to inspect chalets, after the Israeli army reportedly booby-trapped and blew them up at dawn, on the outskirts of the town of al-Khiam, southern Lebanon on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
United Nations Spanish UNIFIL forces arrive to inspect chalets, after the Israeli army reportedly booby-trapped and blew them up at dawn, on the outskirts of the town of al-Khiam, southern Lebanon on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)

UN peacekeepers patrolling southern Lebanon have faced a dramatic surge of “aggressive behavior” by Israeli forces over the last year, including drone-dropped grenades and machine-gun fire, according to an internal report seen by The Associated Press.

The report by one of the 48 nations that together have more than 7,500 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon says the number of incidents jumped from just one in January to 27 in December. The hilly frontier zone where the UNIFIL force patrols has seen decades of cross-border violence. Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militants fought a full-scale war in 2024.

The targeting of peacekeepers appears aimed at undermining the international force and strengthening Israel’s military footprint along the UN-drawn border with Lebanon, known as the Blue Line, the report alleges. It was shared with AP on condition that the news organization not identify the country whose peacekeepers compiled the findings for internal use by their senior command.

Israel has long mistrusted UNIFIL, accusing it of failing to prevent Hezbollah from building up its military presence along the border in violation of ceasefire agreements going back two decades.

The growing catalog of run-ins comes as a half-century of international peacekeeping efforts along the border face an uncertain future. UNIFIL’s mission is scheduled to end this year and US President Donald Trump ’s administration regards it as a waste of money.

Israel says it tries to reduce harm

In a statement to AP, the Israeli military said it “is not conducting a deterrence campaign against UNIFIL forces" and is working within accepted frameworks to dismantle Hezbollah, largely based in southern Lebanon.

The military “takes steps to reduce harm to UNIFIL forces and other international actors operating in the area,” it said.

UNIFIL said in a statement that “the number of attacks on or near peacekeepers, as well as aggressive behavior toward peacekeepers, have increased since September 2025,” with most of those incidents attributed to the Israeli military.

“The majority of incidents do not involve physical harm to peacekeepers, but any action that interferes with our mandated activities is a matter of concern,” it said.

The UN force has reported additional incidents this year. An Israeli tank opened fire with small-caliber bullets on a UNIFIL post on Jan. 16, it said. This week, it reported that a drone dropped a stun grenade that exploded in the vicinity of a peacekeeping patrol before flying toward Israeli territory.

Report details array of incidents

The report seen by AP details multiple instances in 2025 of grenades being dropped by Israeli drones near UNIFIL patrols, including an attack in October that wounded a peacekeeper, as well as machine-gun fire near UNIFIL positions. In some cases, UNIFIL vehicles were damaged.

The last four months of 2025 also saw a surge in incidents of direct fire at all targets from Israeli positions on both sides of the Blue Line, the report says. Such incidents spiked to 77 in December, up from just two in January, it says.

UNIFIL vehicles and positions are clearly marked as belonging to the UN, and Hezbollah militants have not maintained a visible presence or fired on Israeli forces in recent months.

The report says “it cannot be excluded” that Israel is using the incidents to maintain a military presence north of the border and prevent people who have fled the zone from returning.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas -led attack on Israel that triggered war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not fully stopped by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later.

Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild in the south, in violation of the ceasefire, and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities. Israeli forces also continue to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side of the border. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.

Spraying of chemicals spurs an outcry

The UN and Lebanon say Israeli forces dropped herbicide on Lebanese territory on Sunday, forcing a more than nine-hour pause in peacekeeping activities, including patrols.

“The use of herbicides raises questions about the effects on local agricultural lands, and how this might impact the return of civilians to their homes and livelihoods in the long-term,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. There was no Israeli comment.

Dujarric added that “any activity” by the Israeli military north of the Blue Line violates a UN resolution adopted in 2006 that expanded the UNIFIL mission, in hopes of restoring peace to the area after a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Uncertain future for border area UNIFIL was created nearly five decades ago to oversee Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon after its troops invaded in 1978.

The UN Security Council voted last August to terminate its mission at the end of 2026.

Israel had long sought an end to its mandate, saying UNIFIL failed to keep Hezbollah away from the border. Under the 2006 UN ceasefire, the Lebanese army was supposed to maintain security in the south with backing from UNIFIL and militants were to disarm.

Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon have frequently accused UNIFIL of collusion with Israel and have sometimes attacked its patrols.

The Lebanese government says UNIFIL serves a necessary purpose. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in December that Lebanon will need a follow-up force to fill the vacuum and to help Lebanese troops along the border as they expand their presence there.

In an AP interview this week, Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said several proposals are under discussion.

One possibility is an expansion of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, or UNTSO, which maintains a small observer force in Lebanon. The European Union has also offered to contribute to an international observer force, he said.

Whatever the arrangement, Mitri said: “We need a neutral, internationally mandated force to observe and make sure that whatever is agreed upon in negotiations is fully respected."