The two leading Palestinian factions inked a landmark reconciliation deal in Cairo Wednesday, putting an end to their four-year estrangement and paving the way for a concerted struggle for statehood.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah movement, witnessed the significant event together with Khaled Meshaal, head of the Damascus-based politburo of the Islamic Hamas group.

The entente is widely seen as a breakthrough consonant with the will of the Palestinian people, conducive to the unity and cooperation among different Palestinian factions and contributive to the Palestinian state-building endeavors.

Meanwhile, the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation gives Palestinians one voice and one direction, and thus dispels the cloud their rift has cast upon the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. In this sense, the agreement brings new hope to the stalled Middle East peace process.

The remarkable step forward was taken after years of acrimony between the two movements. Due to their visibly different approaches to pursuing Palestinian statehood, the relatively radical Hamas group and the moderate Fatah faction were constantly at odds.

Their rivalry turned into total hostility in 2007 when Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, routed Fatah forces out of the Gaza Strip and gained de facto control of the Palestinian enclave.

The consequent standoff not only jeopardized the Palestinian national cause, but also strongly undermined the already intractable process to end the decades-old feud between the Palestinians and Israel.

On the one hand, neither the internationally recognized Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank nor the Hamas leadership in Gaza was able to represent the interests and aspirations of the whole Palestinian people. On the other, their split also impaired the Palestinian power in the international political arena.

Since 2009, Egypt and some other Arab states had tried to mediate a reconciliation between the top two Palestinian movements, but to no avail due to various reasons.

The process took a positive turn this year as the unprecedented political changes in several Arab countries helped remove some of the external impediments to Fatah-Hamas reconciliation. Palestinian leaders seized the moment and finally agreed to close their ranks.

The hard-won reconciliation pact marks historic progress and opens a new chapter in the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

However, as Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said, signing the deal was just a good start. It is unrealistic to expect that the various problems that have troubled the Palestinians for long will be solved overnight.

Without doubt, the transitional government envisioned by the agreement will face daunting challenges both on the diplomatic and on the domestic fronts, which demands the two groups further compromise and cooperate in accordance with the overarching national interests.

To the comfort of the Palestinian people and the broader international community, leaders of both Fatah and Hamas have explicitly voiced their resolves to overcome all difficulties and realize perennial reconciliation.

And it is the common wish of the whole world that reconciliation will put the Palestinians on the fast track to statehood and prosperity while blazing a path for the Palestinians and the Israelis to reach lasting peace.