Fatah have signed a preliminary truce deal with Hamas, amid rising tensions between the two Palestinian factions over the Goldstone Report.

But Hamas is yet to sign the agreement, and a spokesman for the party said their leadership would not be pressurised into peace.

Hamas has been strongly critical of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who originally refused to push for a UN debate on the Goldstone Report.

The UN-commissioned report had been critical of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza offensive earlier this year.
Mr Abbas has since changed his position on the report, and decided to back UN Security Council action on the report’s recommendations.

Fatah representative Jamal Muheisin, who signed the truce, said his party had decided to take “positive action” to heal the rift between the two parties. The agreement will be handed to Hamas later this week.

But Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah indicated that the rift could not be so quickly forgotten. He said: “The Palestinian people will not forgive the Palestinian Authority for its crime against the martyrs and innocent Palestinians.”