Hamas leader says reconciliation deal with Fatah faction collapsing

GAZA: Palestinian Islamist group Hamas's leader in Gaza said a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction was collapsing, just 10 weeks after the agreement was reached.

The rivals signed a deal brokered by Cairo on Oct 12 after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip, including its border crossings with Egypt and Israel, a decade after seizing control of the enclave in a civil war.

The deal bridged a deep gulf between Abbas's Westernbacked mainstream Fatah and Hamas, an Islamist movement designated a terrorist group by Western countries and Israel. But continued disputes have delayed its implementation.

Yehya Al-Sinwar, Hamas's chief in Gaza and a key architect of the unity agreement, offered a bleak outlook on Thursday, suggesting the deal could suffer a similar fate to numerous reconciliation attempts over the past decade.

“The reconciliation project is falling apart. Only a blind man can't see that,” Sinwar said in comments published by proHamas media.

One of the latest disputes came earlier this month when Hamas, according to Fatah officials, missed a milestone to complete the handover of Gaza to Abbas's West Bank-based government.

Hamas says it has given up all administrative control in Gaza.

Rami Al-Hamdallah, the prime minister, said Hamas had not transferred moneys as agreed, while Hamas said Hamdallah's government had not paid salaries in Gaza as agreed. — Reuters