Palestinian unity government to resign over Gaza row
The Palestinian unity government will resign, President Mahmoud Abbas has announced.
He told his Fatah faction the cabinet had to be dissolved because its Hamas rivals would not allow it to operate in Gaza, where Hamas is in control.
Some reports suggest that the government would step down within hours.
The cabinet was sworn in last June to try to end a major rift between Fatah, which governs the West Bank, and Hamas.
The two sides had governed separately since the Islamist group Hamas, which won elections in 2006, ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Although Fatah and Hamas formally agreed a technocratic government, deep divisions remained, resulting in political paralysis, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports.
Fatah accuses Hamas of trying to create an independent Islamic state in Gaza; Hamas provokes Fatah by saying it avoids new general elections as it fears losing them, our correspondent adds.
Israel has insisted it will not deal with the unity government backed by Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
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