Cairo, February 24, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Palestinian mediators and representatives of factions stepped up their efforts to compromise on signing an Egyptian proposal for inter-Palestinian reconciliation, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.

The efforts try to bridge the gaps between Cairo and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said Jamil Al- Majdalawi, a senior leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

"The debate is now focusing on signing of the Egyptian paper by all parties while considering Hamas' notes when the mechanisms of implementing (the deal) are drawn up," Al-Majdalawi, who visited Cairo last week, said in an interview with Xinhua.

In October, Hamas raised several reservations on the Egyptian proposal which Cairo drafted after months of hosting a national Palestinian dialogue. The offer aims at reconciling Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, which rules the West Bank after Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007.

After months of freeze in Egypt's moves to broker a Palestinian deal, Al-Maldalawi said his movement, together with leftist and independent parties, decided to resume contacts with Egypt in a bid to achieve a Palestinian unity deal. The Egyptian offer "has become a political fact that must be respected and present in any effort to end the Palestinian division," he said.

Hamas, justifying its reservations, says the Egyptian proposal has given Abbas an authority to set the date of elections and to decide on a committee that would be tasked to reform the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

As Egypt insists not to open the document for review or amendment, Al-Majdalawi said Hamas should first sign the proposal and its reservations can later be considered when the process to restore political unity between Gaza and the West Bank begins.

Earlier, Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, said the Islamic movement may accept the reconciliation proposal once it receives guarantees that its reservations would be reflected.

Meanwhile, Al-Majdalawi called on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) not to restart peace talks with Israel unless it stops building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"The Israeli measures on the ground always prove that Israel is not interested in peace," Al-Majdalawi said, describing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement to add two West Bank shrines to the Jewish state's list of national heritage sites as "an impudent decision."

Source: Xinhua