The Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas group agreed on Wednesday to halt their clashes even as they headed for a showdown over Abbas's threat to hold a referendum on statehood proposal.
Abbas has given the Hamas government until the end of the week to accept a manifesto calling for a Palestinian state that implicitly recognises Israel or face a vote on the issue.
The president would issue a decree on Saturday setting the stage for the referendum if the Hamas still refused to back the proposal, Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said.
"President Abbas will issue the decree on Saturday," Abu Rdainah told reporters in Ramallah.
With shootouts between Hamas and Fatah now frequent, many Palestinians fear a referendum could trigger more violence.
But after a meeting in the impoverished Gaza strip brokered by Egyptian officials, Fatah and Hamas leaders urged calm.
"We order men from Fatah and Hamas to respect the holiness of Palestinian blood," said Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas leader.
Fatah lawmaker Majed Abu Shammala said both sides hoped to end internal violence that has killed nearly 20 people in Gaza in the past month. Previous agreements to end factional bloodshed have not lasted long.
A government spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, said members of a new paramilitary force set up by Hamas would also be pulled off the streets in Gaza and redeployed to limited locations to ease tensions. He gave no timeframe.
Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, Abbas did not give a specific time for issuing the decree on the referendum, saying that it would be in two or three days.
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