CAIRO, (Reuters) – Palesti-nian leaders formally ended a four-year rift between secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas at a ceremony in Egypt yesterday, a reconciliation their people see as crucial for their drive to set up an independent state.
Israel, which in 1967 captured the territories — the West Bank and Gaza Strip — where the Palestinians seek statehood, decried the deal as a blow to prospects for peace.
“We announce to Palesti-nians that we turn forever the black page of division,” Palestinian President Mahmoud
