Ankara                                                                                                                                                                                                  14 Oct. 2017                                                                                                                                                                                        (Anadolu News)

Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Saturday welcomed the reconciliation agreement signed between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah.

“This reconciliation agreement concludes the conflict among our Palestinian brothers,” Kalin said in a statement.

On Thursday, Hamas and Fatah signed a landmark reconciliation deal in Cairo aimed at ending ten years of crippling inter-Palestinian political division.

Under the terms of the deal, the Ramallah-based Palestinian unity government will assume political and administrative responsibility for the Gaza Strip no later than Dec. 1.

He added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had always supported the talks, and had held meetings with the Hamas and Fatah leaders.

The last meeting with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was held this August in Turkish capital Ankara.

Kalin urged international organizations, especially the UN, to end this humanitarian crisis, revive the peace process and take steps towards the two-state solution.

“Israel should end its siege on Palestinian lands and avoid any movement that would harm the reconciliation process,” he said.

The West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip have remained politically divided since 2007, when Hamas wrested control of the strip from Fatah following several days of bloody street fighting.

Hamas’s capture of Gaza in 2007 ended an earlier — if short-lived — unity government established after Hamas swept the 2006 Palestinian legislative polls.