Palestinian Authority leaders on Thursday expressed joy over the downfall of
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s regime, with some calling on Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip to follow suit and topple the Hamas
government.
Palestinian analysts predicted that the collapse of the
Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt would undermine Hamas, which in the past year
has been emboldened by Morsi’s rise to power.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas
was one of the first Arab leaders to congratulate the Egyptians on the ouster of
Morsi.
In a letter to acting President Adli Mansour, Abbas congratulated
him on the appointment, expressing hope that he would fulfill the aspirations of
the Egyptian people to “live in freedom, dignity and stability.”
Abbas
praised the Egyptian army and its commanders for preserving the country’s
security and preventing it from slipping toward the abyss.
Tayeb Abdel
Rahim, a top aide to Abbas, saluted the Egyptian army for the “wonderful
achievement.”
Referring to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Rahim
hailed the Egyptian army and people for refusing to be intimidated by those who
“sow sedition, civil war and sectarianism.”
Jamal Nazzal, a senior Fatah
representative, called on Palestinians to overthrow Hamas in the wake of the
events in Egypt.
Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf expressed hope that the
ouster of Morsi would aid efforts to end divisions among the
Palestinians.
“We hope that the historic victory of the Egyptian people’s
will would help our people get rid of the destructive division and restore
national unity,” Assaf said in an indirect reference to Hamas’s control over the
Gaza Strip.
Several other Fatah officials expressed hope that
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would wage a revolution against
Hamas.
“Now it’s Gaza’s turn to get rid of the Muslim Brotherhood
branch,” said one official. “The dark era of political Islam has ended. The era
of hypocrisy and lies has ended and Gaza will soon witness its own revolution
against Hamas.”
Abdel Rahim Jamous, a Fatahaffiliated political analyst,
urged Hamas to seize the opportunity and “return to Palestinian national
legitimacy before it’s too late.”
Addressing the Hamas leadership, Jamous
said: “You have no future with the Muslim Brotherhood. They have failed
even before they started. They are losers. Wake up before it’s too
late.”
Palestinian reporters in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that top
Hamas officials seemed to be very worried by the ouster of Morsi.
Unlike
the PA leadership, Hamas did not rush to congratulate the Egyptian army and
opposition.
But Ahmed Youssef, a senior Hamas official, said his movement
was worried not over the fall of Morsi’s regime, but over the possibility that
events could lead to bloodshed in Egypt.
The “whole world is hoping to
see stability in Egypt,” Youssef told the Ma’an news agency.
The crisis
in Egypt had already resulted in a shortage of basic goods in the Gaza Strip
because of the closure of the Rafah border crossing, he
said.
Palestinians said that the Egyptian army had beefed up its presence
along the border with the Gaza Strip in the past few days.
Egyptian
troops on Thursday destroyed six smuggling tunnels under the border, they
said.
The Egyptian authorities have also imposed severe restrictions on
the movement of Palestinians through the Rafah terminal, they
added.
There are unconfirmed reports that Cairo has also issued an order
banning Hamas leaders and members from entering Egypt.
Ehab Ghissin, a
spokesman for the Hamas government, condemned as “trivial” Fatah’s call for an
Egyptian-style revolution in the Gaza Strip.
Ghissin said that Fatah’s
calls were intended to cover-up the continued PA security crackdown against
Hamas supporters in the West Bank.