PALESTINIAN-POLITICS-FATAH-HAMAS

Waving national flags (R) and Fatah’s yellow banners, hundreds of thousands of supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s party held on January 4, 2013 their first mass rally in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Hamas, in a sign of reconciliation with Fatah, permitted the rally to go ahead as the climax of a week of Gaza festivities celebrating the 48th anniversary of Fatah taking up arms against Israel. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED ABED