Fatah was absent from some of the bilateral meetings during the two-day conference in Cairo amid reported frustration over Hamas’s refusal to disarm and the growing influence of the Democratic Reform Bloc, according to Arabic media reports on Monday.
The high-level meeting was said to have included mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, as well as representatives from eight Palestinian factions, most notably Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Reform Bloc.
While Fatah spokesman Abdel Fattah Dawla made comments to Independent Arabia, which made it apparent the group was growing frustrated with Hamas’s lack of motion in handing over control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority, France 24’s Arabic service noted that many believe Fatah’s stretches of absence were due to the Democratic Reform Bloc’s participation.
The bloc is currently led by Mohammed Dahlan, a former senior Fatah figure reported to have recently met with Shin Bet chief David Zini in the United Arab Emirates, where he lives in exile.
Dahlan fell out with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2011. The Palestinian Authority convicted Dahlan of multiple serious offenses, including involvement in a poisoning plot against PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, an attempted coup against the Palestinian leadership, and embezzlement. Dahlan denied these accusations as “fantastical” at the time.
Dawla told Independent Arabia that Hamas is “obligated to implement the terms of the ceasefire agreement that it signed unilaterally, which includes disarming,” and stressed “the need not to give [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any pretext to evade implementing the rest of the agreement and to continue killing the Palestinian people.”
Why is Hamas not disarming in Gaza?
Though Hamas has yet to disarm and follow through with its agreements, Dawla blamed the lack of movement toward the second phase of the US-brokered deal on “the behavior of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his insistence on remaining in the Gaza Strip.”
Dawla urged Hamas to “take practical steps to enable the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to exercise their duties as the legitimate political and legal authorities over the Gaza Strip” and complained that, so far, the Iran-backed terrorist organization had “not taken any steps in that direction; it is negotiating over weapons and making concessions to others.”
Hamas and its allied terrorist groups were reported to have demanded that the conditions of disarmament include weapons only being handed over to Palestinian parties, such an action be carried out in stages rather than all at once in pace with Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and that anti-Hamas militia groups allegedly receiving Israeli support be entirely disbanded, according to France 24.
Hamas attempts ‘united front’ – researcher to Post
Dr. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center and a historian of the Middle East specializing in the social and political history of the Palestinians, explained to The Jerusalem Post that Hamas’s promises to disarm were part of a “masquerade” and the group had ambitions to remain in power in Gaza.
“They (Fatah) understand very well that Hamas’s intentions are to remain in power, and therefore, they refuse to cooperate, and their demand for Hamas disarmament is no less strong than Israel’s,” Chorev commented. “Hamas is trying to build a united front, so-called that supports its demands, but the fact is that Fatah is not supporting it… the Hamas situation is deteriorating at the moment, so there’s no reason to give them a hand at the moment, and to save them by showing a united Palestinian front.”
A senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization also registered his displeasure at the developments in Cairo, telling Independent Arabia that there was “an attempt to create an alternative framework to the PLO” and “some factions are not allowed to decide the fate of the Gaza Strip in the absence of Palestinian legitimacy.”
The PLO official explained that any agreement reached “is not binding on us in the absence of the Fatah movement,” warning against “creating an alternative parallel framework that would perpetuate a geographical separation of the state of Palestine and even divide the Gaza Strip.”
