PALESTINIAN factions signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo to end the divide between the West Bank and Gaza and hold elections in a year in an agreement Israel called a blow to peace.

    Representatives of 13 factions, including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures, inked Tuesday’s deal following talks with Egyptian officials.

    “All the Palestinian factions signed the document at a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials,” Bilal Qassem, politburo member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), told reporters.

    He said all factions were given the opportunity to discuss the document and air any reservations.

    “We signed the deal despite several reservations. But we insisted on working for the higher national interest,” said Walid al-Awad, a politburo member of the leftist Palestine People’s Party.

    “We have discussed all the reservations. Everyone has agreed to take these points into consideration,” he told Egyptian state television without elaborating.

    The agreement was immediately denounced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a hard blow to the peace process.”

    “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?” he said.

    Netanyahu’s call on Abbas to cancel the agreement was denounced as “unacceptable interference” by the head of Fatah’s delegation, Azzam al-Ahmed.(SD-Agencies)