Hamdallah’s Gaza visit aims to seal Fatah’s deal with Hamas
Talks intended to prepare for transfer of power in Gaza Strip from Hamas to PNA
Occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is to make his first visit to Gaza since 2015 tomorrow, in a fresh attempt to reconcile with Hamas which rules the Israeli-blockaded coastal enclave.
The trip by Hamdallah and several of his ministers aims to crown a rapprochement between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party after a decade of animosity and spurts of violence.
The talks are intended to prepare for a transfer of power in the Gaza Strip from Hamas to Abbas’s Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
The renewed attempt at rapprochement, backed by Egypt, has the potential to impact both the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the wider Middle East.
For the two million residents of Gaza, the hope is to see an improvement in the miserable living conditions in the overcrowded and impoverished territory.
Battered by three wars with Israel since 2008, it suffers from severe water and electricity shortages, an economic slump and unemployment of more than 40 per cent.
Unity initiative
Hamas and its rival Fatah, which dominates the PNA, have both expressed confidence that the latest unity initiative will fare better than the failures of the past. But among many questions to be answered is the central issue of whether Hamas is really prepared to give up its Gaza security apparatus and share power with the PNA.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq has said there is “great hope” for the success of the reconciliation efforts but that disarming Hamas personnel is not on the agenda.
“This never was nor will it be up for discussion,” he said in a statement.
Azzam Al Ahmad, a leading Fatah member, said he was now “more optimistic of ending Palestinian division in Gaza than at any previous opportunity”.
But he said the PNA must be able to fulfil its responsibilities, “including security, without any interference from any faction”.
Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, won a landslide victory in 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.
It ousted Fatah from Gaza the following year after wrangling over the formation of a new government degenerated into bloody clashes.
Since then, Abbas’s limited power is confined to the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation and located, at its nearest point, 40 kilometres from the Israel-Gaza border.
The increasingly isolated Hamas finally agreed to demands from Abbas. Hamas is now waiting for Abbas to revoke his sanctions.
“These measures will be cancelled the moment the Palestinian government takes over its responsibilities in Gaza,” Fatah’s Ahmad promised. Those responsibilities include a PNA takeover of Gaza border crossings with Egypt and Israel, he said.