Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya reached out to West Bank rivals Fatah on Monday, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation.

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya reached out to West Bank rivals Fatah on Monday, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation.

"The (Hamas) government will allow all Fatah members who are from Gaza and who left the Strip (in 2007) to return, without any preconditions," apart from those accused of killing Hamas members during intense factional fighting that year, Haniya said.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza City, he added the authorities would "release a small number of Fatah members who are imprisoned (in Gaza) for security reasons."

Fatah MPs, who are based in the West Bank, would also be allowed to visit
Gaza, Haniya added.

Hamas in recent months has reached out to Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as Israel and Egypt have tightened a blockade on the Islamist movement's Gaza enclave.

Haniya spoke via telephone to Fatah leader and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in October, stressing the need for reconciliation and "a return to national unity."

The two sides have made repeated attempts to heal their historic rift, most recently by signing an Egyptian-brokered deal in 2011 in which they pledged to set up an interim government of independents to pave the way for new elections.

However, the agreement has never been implemented.