As Hamas prepares to mark the third anniversary of its violent takeover of the
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank voiced deep concern
over what they described as attempts to “legitimize” the Islamist movement’s
“coup.”
A PA official in Ramallah said on Tuesday that the flotilla
incident two weeks ago had played into the hands of Hamas.
RELATED:'UN to transfer flotilla aid to Gaza'Hamas nixes Abbas' reconciliation talks“The [Israeli]
assault on the aid ships on May 31 has boosted Hamas,” the official
said.
“It came as gift from heaven to Hamas.”
The official said
that while the PA supported the lifting of the blockade on the Gaza
Strip, it
was worried that such a move would further embolden Hamas and its allies
in
Damascus and Teheran.
“We must prevent Hamas from benefiting from
the
[flotilla] incident,” the official said.
“We want to see the
blockade on
the Gaza Strip lifted. But at the same time we must be careful not to
allow
Hamas to reap the fruits and consolidate its control over the Gaza
Strip.”
PA outraged over Arab League
secretary-general visit to Gaza
The PA is said to be outraged
over a visit to the Gaza Strip
earlier this week by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
“This
visit legitimizes the Hamas coup,” another official said. “We need to
remind the
Arab world and the international community that Hamas seized control
over the
Gaza Strip through a bloody and violent coup.”
PA President
Mahmoud
Abbas, who met separately in Sharm e-Sheikh on Tuesday with Moussa and
Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, reportedly relayed to them his deep concern
over
attempts to recognize Hamas’s authority in the Gaza Strip.
Abbas
announced after the meetings that he was prepared to form a new
government if
Hamas accepted an Egyptian initiative to solve the crisis between the
movement
and his ruling Fatah faction.
“If Hamas signs the [Egyptian]
document, we
would have no objections to the establishment of a caretaker or a
technocratic
or independent government that would receive the funds needed to rebuild
the
Gaza Strip,” Abbas said. “We are prepared to discuss with Hamas all of
its
demands, but only after it signs the Egyptian document.”
Azzam
al-Ahmed,
a senior Fatah official and advisor to Abbas, called on Hamas not to be
“deluded
by imaginary victories” – a reference to the movement’s violent takeover
of the
Gaza Strip and the flotilla incident. He said that lifting the blockade
should
be linked to efforts to end the power struggle between Hamas and
Fatah.
“The solution to the lifting of the blockade lies in
ending the
state of schism and achieving Palestinian national unity,” al-Ahmed told
reporters in Ramallah. “We need to be united so that we can have one
law, one
homeland and one people to face Israeli crimes.”
He said that he
and
other Fatah officials were prepared to meet with Hamas in the framework
of the
Egyptian “reconciliation” initiative.
He added that Hamas had
refused to
receive a delegation that was formed by Abbas and entrusted with
visiting the
Gaza Strip to discuss ways of ending the crisis between the two parties.