Netanyahu does not recognize Fatah-Hamas agreement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his security cabinet that while Israel will not accept the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement, it will not try to prevent it from being realized and will not sever ties with Fatah, Israeli media report, Patria agency conveys.

Netanyahu also told members of that inner cabinet that Israel will cooperate with members of the Palestinian Authority who move to the Gaza Strip to take up positions in local government, as it is in Israel's interest to improve living conditions in that Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean coast.

Three anonymous sources told the newspaper Haaretz that Netanyahu also told the US and Egypt that he does not believe the agreement between Hamas and Fatah will lead to the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. 

The two main Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation agreement in Cairo last week after a decade of devastating disagreements during which Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority ruled the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank. 

The Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, had Western support, while Israel, the US, and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the nationalist Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi) party, expressed confidence on Monday that Israel should not sever security ties with the Palestinian Authority.

He added that Israel needs the Palestinian Authority more than it needs Israel, because it would fail if Hamas took it over, just as it forcibly took control of Gaza by defeating forces loyal to Fatah in 2007.