Report: Hamas Prepared to Join Fatah to Hold Elections

The Hamas terrorist organization has told Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas it is ready to agree to national unity government in preparation for local and parliamentary elections.

The Jewish Press reported here on Monday that Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal recently spoke with Abbas by phone and suggested the time has come to implement the unity plan that they agreed on in principle more than two years ago.

Sources told the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency that Mashaal called a second time and that both leaders agreed to form a unity government that would last for at least six months.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has ignored the division between Hamas and Fatah, but his ideas for a future Palestinian Authority state have little relevance without Gaza being included. On the other hand, Hamas' open opposition to the State of Israel would force Kerry to accept Hamas' ideology or ditch his project.