Fatah and Hamas sign pact to form Palestinian unity government

Mahmoud Abbas [World Economic Forum]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas on Wednesday signed a pact to form a unity government within five weeks and to hold parliamentary elections within six months.

After the agreement was announced, Israel canceled a scheduled meeting with Palestinian Authority peace negotiators. The current U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which began last summer, have an April 29 deadline for an agreement.

“Abu Mazen (Abbas) could have chosen peace with Israel instead of peace with a murderous terror organization,”  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.