Isolated Hamas agrees to give up Gaza rule
QATAR CRISIS HAS BIG ROLE IN WEAKENING OF ISLAMIST MOVEMENT
Growing isolation has forced the Islamist Hamas movement which has ruled Gaza since 2007 to finally cave in and agree to resolve a long-standing conflict with the Palestinian National Authority.
Efforts to end the feud have fallen apart before, and the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas has not allowed a unity government formed in 2014 to extend its authority to Gaza.
Analysts say this time around will be different as Hamas faces unprecedented economic pressure while its chief backer, Qatar, is facing a regional boycott and growing isolation on the world stage due to its financing of terrorist groups.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Doha — they had already designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation and asked Doha to stop hosting its leaders such as Hamas’ political chief Khalid Mesha’al.
Jihad Harb, a Palestinian analyst told Gulf News the Qatari crisis is among the factors behind Hamas move.
“Its not the main factor but its an important one,” he said.
Egyptian political scientist from Al Ahram Strategic Studies Centre Mohammad Abbas Naji agreed and attributed Hamas’ decision to “regional developments, including the boycott of Qatar”.
In the midst of the latest round of reconciliation talks in Egypt, the group announced that it had agreed to dismantle an administrative committee it set up earlier this year to run Gaza.
Hamas is under unprecedented economic pressure while its chief backer, Qatar, is facing a regional boycott and growing isolation due to its financing of terrorist groups
Palestinian Islamist Hamas group said yesterday it has dissolved its administration that runs Gaza and agrees to hold general elections in order to end a long-running feud with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
The last Palestinian legislative election was held in 2006 when Hamas scored a surprise victory, which laid the ground for a political rupture. Hamas and Fatah fought a short civil war in Gaza in 2007 and since then Hamas has governed the small coastal enclave.
Numerous attempts since 2011 to reconcile the two movements and form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank have so far failed. Hamas and Fatah agreed in 2014 to form a national reconciliation government, but despite that agreement, Hamas’s shadow government has continued to rule the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said in a statement yesterday that it has dissolved its shadow government, that it will allow the reconciliation government to operate in Gaza and that it agrees to hold elections and enter talks with Fatah.
Mahmoud Aloul, a senior Fatah official welcomed cautiously Hamas’s position.
“If this is Hamas statement, then this is a positive sign,” he said. “We want to see that happening on the ground before we move to the next step.”
Azzam Al Ahmad, a Fatah participant in the talks, said Hamas and Fatah agreed to meet in Cairo within 10 days, during which time the national unity government should assume its responsibility in Gaza.
The Western-backed Abbas, 82, is now 12 years into what was to be a four-year term and is an unpopular leader according to opinion polls.
He has no clear successor and there are no steps being taken toward a presidential election anytime soon.
Hamas has been greatly weakened by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, three brutal assaults by Israel and international isolation.
Gaza’s economy is in tatters and residents of the territory have electricity for only a few hours a day. In recent months, Abbas has stepped up financial pressure on Hamas, including the scaling back of electricity payments to Gaza, to force his rivals to cede ground.
In previous deals, including one brokered by Egypt in 2011, both sides professed willingness to reconcile, but ultimately balked at giving up power in their respective territories.
A key sticking point in the past was Hamas’ refusal to place its security forces in Gaza under the control of an Abbasled unity government.
It also was not clear how Egypt’s latest effort aligns with its previous tacit support for a separate Gaza power-sharing deal between Hamas and Mohammad Dahlan, an exiled former Abbas aide-turned-rival.