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Mahmoud Abbas says deal turns ‘black page of division’ after signing deal with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Egypt Rival Palestinian groups have hailed the signing of a reconciliation agreement that could change the parameters of the search for Middle East peace, amid trenchant opposition from Israel. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the head of Fatah, and Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the Islamist movement Hamas, met for the first time in five years at a ceremony in Cairo on Wednesday, where Egypt’s transitional government pulled off a striking coup by brokering the deal. Abbas, Yasser Arafat’s successor as leader of the PLO, said they had turned forever the “black page of divisions”. Meshaal, also seeking to strike a historically resonant note, declared that Hamas’s bitter rift with Fatah was “behind us”. The potential of the agreement was underlined by the presence of representatives from the UN, the EU and the Arab League – all now digesting the diplomatic implications for the region. “We are certain of success so long as we are united,” Abbas said. “Reconciliation clears the way not only to putting the Palestinian house in order but also to a just peace.” The deal will make it easier for the Palestinians to go to the UN in September and demand broad international recognition of an independent state – without a negotiated peace agreement with Israel. It provides for the creation of a joint caretaker government before Palestinian-wide elections next year. It does not require Hamas to recognise Israel. But sensitivities and difficulties ahead were underlined by an argument over protocol –whether Meshaal should sit on the podium with Abbas or among other delegates in the hall. The agreement was hailed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and refugee camps in Lebanon. But the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, savaged the accord as “a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism”. Israel, which signed the 1993 Oslo agreement with the PLO, shuns Hamas, viewing it as a terrorist group committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. The former Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, did not help the movement’s image when he praised Osama Bin Laden as an “Arab holy warrior”. “How can we make peace with a government when half of it calls for the destruction of Israel and glorifies the murderous Osama bin Laden?” Netanyahu said during a visit to London. Netanyahu has been lobbying for the EU and the US to cut aid to the PA if Hamas joins a new government. Meshaal, once the target of an assassination attempt by the Mossad, and now based in Damascus, Syria, spelled out Hamas’s goal: “Our aim is to establish a free and completely sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whose capital is Jerusalem, without any settlers and without giving up a single inch of land and without giving up on the right of return [of Palestinian refugees].” The reconciliation brought recognisable signs of change to the streets of Gaza City hours before the signing of the pact. Palestine TV, the channel associated with Fatah and its de facto capital, Ramallah, was allowed to broadcast live from Gaza for the first time in four years. The event they televised, a demonstration in favour of the reconciliation agreement, began with a few dozen people chanting in the Square of the Unknown Soldier, and developed into a raucous party of thousands waving the yellow flags of Fatah which had been long hidden. Last week, when news of the agreement became public, activists headed to the same square to demonstrate their pleasure at the prospect of an end to division. Within minutes, they were cleared by Hamas policemen wielding batons. On Wednesday, the same policeman made no attempt to clear the crowds even when the green flags of Hamas supporters were lost in a sea of yellow Fatah flags. Rashid Mawad, a student, was waving a Fatah flag with one hand, his other still in a plaster cast following his beating at last week’s demonstration, his face still bruised. “I wasn’t optimistic last week but I feel different now,” he said. “I don’t know why, perhaps it’s because of the events in Syria,” he said. Mowayad Aish, an engineering student, was waving a Hamas flag a few metres away. “This is the first step towards ending the occupation of Palestine. It is true there have been difficulties in the past and there will be obstacles in the future but we must remember it is for the people that we want to end the division.” Hamas Palestinian territories Fatah Mahmoud Abbas Egypt Middle East Ian Black Conal Urquhart guardian.co.uk