World

Palestinian factions sign 'Beijing Declaration,' agree to form unity government after talks in China

Published

2 years ago

July 23, 2024

Palestinian factions sign 'Beijing Declaration,' agree to form unity government after talks in China

Opposing Palestinian factions agreed to form an interim national unity government during negotiations in China that ended on Tuesday with the signing of the Beijing Declaration, China’s foreign ministry said.
Previous efforts to reconcile rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have failed to do so. The Beijing Declaration has yet to be tested on the ground.
The agreement displays China’s growing influence in the Middle East. Last year, it brokered a breakthrough peace deal between longstanding regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah agreed to end their divisions and form an interim national unity government during negotiations in China that ended on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said.

The Beijing Declaration was signed at the closing ceremony of a reconciliation dialogue among 14 Palestinian factions held in China’s capital from July 21-23, according to the readout.

Previous efforts by Egypt and other Arab countries to reconcile Hamas and Fatah have failed to end 17 years of power-sharing conflict that have weakened Palestinian political aspirations, and it remains to be seen whether this deal will survive the realities on the ground.

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The meeting was held amid attempts by international mediators to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza, with one of the sticking points being the “day-after” plan – how the Hamas-run enclave will be governed once the war that began on Oct. 7 ends.

Senior Hamas official Hussam Badran said the most important point of the Beijing Declaration was to form a Palestinian national unity government to manage the affairs of Palestinians.

“This creates a formidable barrier against all regional and international interventions that seek to impose realities against our people’s interests in managing Palestinian affairs post-war,” Badran said.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk speaks after signing a document to create a temporary Palestinian unity government in Beijing, China, on July 23, 2024. (Agency Pool / Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his goal is to destroy the Iran-backed Hamas group and opposes it having any role in a post-war Gaza administration.

“Instead of rejecting terrorism, (Fatah leader) Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true face. In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas’ rule will be crushed, and Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar. Israel’s security will remain solely in Israel’s hands,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X.

Badran said the national unity government would manage the affairs of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, oversee reconstruction, and prepare conditions for elections.

Currently, Hamas runs Gaza and Fatah forms the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. There has been no immediate comment from Fatah.

Details of the agreement did not set out a timeframe for forming a new government. In March, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, appointed a new government led by one of his close aides, Mohammad Mustafa.

Ashraf Abouelhoul, a specialist on Palestinian affairs, said previous similar declarations had not been implemented and nothing would happen without U.S. approval.

“Forming a unity government with Hamas is rejected by the United States, Israel, and Britain. There is a consensus among those countries to exclude Hamas from any role in the day after the war,” Abouelhoul said.

“What happened in China was nothing but a meeting, a celebratory event, but it is impossible to resolve the problems between Palestinian factions in just three days,” said Abouelhoul, managing editor of the Egyptian state-owned paper Al-Ahram.

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FEUDING FACTIONS

Nonetheless, the agreement marks a diplomatic coup for Beijing and its growing influence in the Middle East, after it brokered a breakthrough peace deal between longstanding regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran last year.

“The core achievement is to make it clear that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said during the closing ceremony, according to the readout.

“China sincerely hopes that the Palestinian factions will achieve Palestinian independence at an early date on the basis of internal reconciliation, and is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with relevant parties to jointly work to implement the Beijing Declaration reached today.”

The most “prominent highlight” was the agreement on forming an interim national reconciliation government around the post-war governance of Gaza, Wang said, adding that the international community should support efforts to form an interim Palestinian government to control Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not members of the PLO, the Palestinians’ highest decision-making body, but they demand that any unity deal includes holding an election for the PLO parliament to secure their inclusion. The Islamist groups are at odds with the current PLO over peace accords with Israel.

“This declaration comes at an important time as our people are facing a genocidal war, especially in the Gaza Strip,” a statement quoted Badran as saying.

Rival factions Hamas and Fatah first met in Beijing in April to discuss reconciliation efforts to end around 17 years of disputes, the first time a Hamas delegation was publicly known to have visited China since the war in Gaza began.

The second round of talks, originally planned for last month, were delayed as both factions traded blame.

The long-feuding Palestinian factions have previously failed to heal their political disputes after Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in a short war in 2007.

Chinese officials have ramped up advocacy for the Palestinians in international forums in recent months, calling for a larger-scale Israeli-Palestinian peace conference and a specific timetable to implement a two-state solution.

World

Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s bid to restore congressional map favoring Democrats

Published

8 hours ago

May 16, 2026

Press Room

Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s bid to restore congressional map favoring Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.

The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.

In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.

But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.

The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.

The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.

Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.

That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.

The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.

“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.

The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.

A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.

Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.

“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.

The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.

“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.

___

Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.

World

Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation

Published

10 hours ago

May 16, 2026

Press Room

Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation

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President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.

Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.

“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”

100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY

President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)

Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.

“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.

Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

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The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”

CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.

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The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)

Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”

CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.

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The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.