Practical measures to implement Palestinian pact start out: Fatah official

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and Islamic Hamas movement have started practical measures to implement a reconciliation agreement they signed early this month, a Fatah official stated Sunday.

The new measures on the ground involve ending the concern of individuals who are detained for political background within the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip or inside the Fatah-ruled West Bank, stated Nabil Shaath, a Fatah official who arrived in Gaza earlier this week.

"There are optimistic indicators to begin implementing the agreement," Shaath told a news conference in Gaza. He expected that the technocratic government, which will rule Gaza and also the West Bank in accordance with the Egyptian-brokered agreement, will be prepared inside the to begin with week of June.

Hamas and Fatah envoys will meet once again in Cairo to discuss the government.

Before the news conference, Shaath met Ismail Haneya, head of Hamas' administration in Gaza, at his workplace in the coastal enclave. In 2007, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took more than Gaza by force.

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