BICOM

Officials from the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have accused each other of accentuating divisions between them and among Palestinians.

On Saturday, Mahmoud Habbash, who serves as Abbas’s adviser on religious affairs, claimed that Hamas is involved in a “conspiracy” with Israel to entirely separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank in a future arrangement, saying, “Israel wants to divide the Palestinian people and turn the Palestinian territories into separate entities and cantons.” Habbash added, “We have warned against this plan in the past.” Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf reiterated Habbash’s allegation, commenting “this is an Israeli plot designed to eliminate the Palestinian cause.”

Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan vehemently denied the claim, saying “We negotiate with the occupation only through the rifle.” Furthermore, Hamas officials launched a counter-attack on Abbas and Fatah yesterday, claiming that Abbas himself is the stumbling block to Palestinian reconciliation. Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas official in Gaza, accused Abbas of “personal intransigence and total refusal to share powers” during an interview with the Al-Resalah website.

The Fatah-dominated PA and Hamas reached agreement over forming a unity government a year ago, a step which led to the collapse of US-spearheaded peace talks between Israel and the PA. However, the accord has never been fully implemented. Barwadeel accused Abbas of not allowing the PA to operate in Gaza, effectively negating the unity agreement. He said, “Reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas] does not require new agreements,” just adherence to what had already been decided.

Meanwhile, the official Facebook page of Fatah last week publicised a cartoon which intertwined the Arabic word for ISIS with the seven-branched Jewish candelabra, which is the official emblem of the State of Israel. The drawing continues a theme recently publicised by Fatah and the PA, especially since the ISIS takeover of the Yarmouk region near Damascus, claiming that Israel and ISIS are somehow colluding.