Members of the Hamas terror group in Gaza in January 2017. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

JNS.org – Hamas officials have informed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that the Gaza-ruling terror group will agree to relinquish control of its weapons if it is allowed to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Friday.

Abbas’s Fatah faction controls the PLO, and if he agrees to the Hamas proposal, the PA would essentially supervise the terror group’s weapons, according to the report.

The fate of Hamas’s weapons and security forces has been a sticking point in the ongoing reconciliation efforts between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. After years of failed attempts at reconciliation, the factions in October announced that they would implement a unity deal, which included the restoration of PA control in Gaza by Dec. 1. But the agreement has still not been implemented.

Israel and the US have refused to recognize a Palestinian unity government unless Hamas agrees to give up its weapons, renounce violence and accept previous agreements signed between Israel and the PA.