GAZA/RAMALLAH - Drivers in Gaza blew their horns on Wednesday to celebrate reconciliation between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements, but Palestinians in the West Bank were less enthusiastic and some doubted the deal was genuine. In Gaza, stronghold of the Hamas Islamist movement which has risen in the past decade to pose a serious challenge to Fatah, students distributed sweets to mark what Palestinian media billed in advance as a signing ceremony in Cairo. But instead of the Fatah and Hamas leaders putting their names to the document signed earlier by senior officials, there was an all-night dispute about protocol and no formal signature by the top two, as had been widely expected. Palestinians have seen their aspirations for independence and statehood smothered in acrimony by the four-year rift between Fatah and Hamas, who fought a brief war in 2007 until Hamas fighters drove Fatah militia out of the Gaza Strip. The deal calls for establishment of an interim government of independents to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections within a year. Waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Viva unity", thousands of Gazans marked the event before television pictures of the ceremony were broadcast from Cairo. Student Ahmed Abu Arar said it was "a message to the Israeli occupation that your threats will not deter us from achieving reconciliation." Fellow student Amani Rabah said mistrust and suffering would give way to optimism. "Today in the faces around there is something of hope, something different from the past. The Palestinian people are happy, especially in Gaza Strip." The atmosphere was more subdued in the West Bank administrative capital Ramallah, where only a few dozen people rallied with celebratory flags at a downtown roundabout. Among them, West Bank physiotherapist Mowaffaq Abdel-Fattah, 35, said revolts elsewhere in the Arab world this year had made Palestinians optimistic that the deal would be implemented. But Ramallah driving instructor Jamal Ghannam, 42 said he thought the agreement would fail because of "outside pressure to not implement it." No Hamas supporters were seen celebrating in Ramallah. Palestinians were puzzled as to why President Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah, and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who lives in Damascus, did not publicly sign the reconciliation agreement. "The dispute went on all night over the seating of leaders but it seemed that Meshaal agreed at the end not to be on stage in order not to spoil the celebrations," a Palestinian source in Cairo said. Aides said a presidential signature was not needed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held peace talks with Abbas last September before negotiations stalled, urged the Palestinian president not to make any pact with Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and give up violent methods. Despite 18 years of interim agreement and intermittent talks, a final peace treaty with Israel leading to statehood seems no closer. Gaza in particular suffered the consequences of Hamas's determination to strike at Israel, with 1,400 people killed in a three-week winter conflict in 2008-09. Reconciliation could complicate life for Abbas. The United States and its European allies, who bankroll the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah, refuse to deal with Hamas unless it changes its policy towards Israel. In a goodwill gesture, rival Fatah and Hamas TV channels in Gaza and the West Bank were allowed to resume live transmissions in each other's territory for the first time since 2007. Hassan Abu Hasheesh of the Hamas press office in Gaza, said however that it was a "one time permission". The language of the media also changed. Hamas television presenters used the term "President Mahmoud Abbas" instead of "the so-called President Mahmoud Abbas" or "Abbas whose presidential tenure has expired".
