Hamas moves to reconcile with Fatah rivals
BETHLEHEM: Hamas, the de facto ruling party of the Gaza Strip, has pledged to dissolve its administrative committee that runs the besieged coastal enclave and has expressed readiness to hold general elections in a bid for reconciliation with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA).
A statement from Hamas said the decision came in response to recent diplomatic efforts by Egypt to reconcile the rival factions, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas has been calling on Hamas to end the administrative committee, relinquish control of the small territory to the PA, and hold presidential and legislative elections.
Hamas and the Fatah-led PA have been embroiled in a conflict since 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections and a bloody conflict between the two groups broke out.
Despite numerous attempts at reconciling the groups, Palestinian leaders have repeatedly failed to follow through on promises of reconciliation and the holding of long-overdue elections, as both movements have often blamed each other for numerous political failures.
The Hamas movement said yesterday it has dissolved its administrative committee – formed earlier this year to the outrage of the PA
agree to hold general elections for the first time since 2006, enter talks with Fatah, and allow the national reconciliation government to operate in Gaza.
Hamas signed the reconciliation agreement with the PLO in April 2014, which was to pave the way for a general election by the end of 2014. However, a devastating 50-day Israeli attack on Gaza that year, as well as a dispute over payment of the salaries of tens of thousands of Hamas security forces, blocked progress on the deal towards reconciliation.
The Palestinian political crisis has since continued to worsen, and Hamas said it formed the committee after the consensus government failed to take responsibility for Gaza’s administration.
The PA alleges that Hamas is attempting to form a “shadow government” to run Gaza independently of the West Bank.
The PA has also been accused of sending the impoverished Gaza Strip further into a humanitarian crisis by slashing funding for Israeli fuel, medicine and salaries for public servants and former prisoners in order to wrest control of the territory from Hamas. Last month, Abbas threatened to undertake further repressive measures against the impoverished territory should Hamas not unconditionally abide by the PA’s demands to end the administrative committee, relinquish control of the enclave to the PA and hold elections.
Following Hamas’s acceptance of these conditions, senior Fatah official Mahmoud Aloul said he cautiously welcomed Hamas’s position.
Ma’an