Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations    

    RAMALLAH, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Fatah official Sunday welcomed Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal's recent call for stopping incitement between the two movements and releasing each other's members.

    "I hope Mashaal's call finds effect on the ground," said Qadoura Fares, a senior official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

    Fares stressed that abiding by Mashaal's call was "a necessary prelude to a national reconciliation."

    In a speech in the Qatari capital of Doha recently, Mashaal called for "emptying the prisons in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip" and stopping incitement every factions conducts against others.

    His call came as Egypt stepped up its efforts to launch a national Palestinian dialogue to settle the crisis between the two factions who were engaged in a stand-off since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006.

    When Hamas drove out pro-Abbas forces from the Gaza Strip in June last year, Abbas responded by firing a Hamas-led coalition government, consolidated his rule in the West Bank and his security forces launched a crackdown against Hamas supporters there.

    Hamas also arrested hundreds of Fatah supporters and leaders in the Gaza Strip to retaliate the West Bank crackdown.