The sources told Ma’an news agency on Tuesday, Abbas had previously received two phone calls from Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal and the group’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

The two reportedly confirmed to Abbas that Hamas had agreed to join a national unity government with Fatah.

This was not the first time that the two parties had announced an agreement to end their differences. Over the past few years, Fatah and Hamas have reached a number of such agreements that were never implemented.

The sources said that Hamas requested that the national unity government serve for six months instead of three as agreed in the 2012 Doha Agreement, one of numerous attempts at reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions.

Abbas might ask current Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to lead the unity government, sources said.

The two main rival Palestinian parties have been on cold terms since 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections.

In the following year, clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah in control of the West Bank.

NTJ/BA