After Gaza war, Palestinian in-fighting flares

GAZA CITY — The war with Israel may be over, but now the fight is turning inward with bitter rivalry between Fateh and Hamas threatening to shatter a fragile Palestinian unity deal.

In the latest spat between the factions, President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of running a "shadow government" in Gaza, prompting the Islamist movement to accuse him of trying to "destroy" the unity agreement they signed in April.

The deal ended seven years of rival Palestinian administrations — with Abbas' Fateh Party which dominates the Palestinian Authority, ruling the West Bank, and Hamas' own government ruling Gaza.

Under the deal, the two sides agreed on the formation of a national consensus government of technocrats which took office on June 2.

But after just over a month in office, everything was put on hold as Israel and Hamas fought a deadly 50-day war in and around Gaza.

Throughout the conflict, Hamas and Fateh put up a united front, working side-by-side in indirect truce talks with Israel in Cairo, which resulted in an open-ended ceasefire that took effect on August 26.

But any illusion of harmony has quickly evaporated.

"Hamas has taken us back to square one, to the days of division," a Fateh official based in Gaza told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

'War of words' 

Gaza-based political analyst Talal Awkel said: "We're now seeing a war of words and mutual accusations being exchanged between Fateh and Hamas."

The latest face-off has likely scuppered elections that were supposed to take place by the end of the year, under the terms of the April agreement.

In a statement last week, Fateh accused Hamas of placing 300 of its members in Gaza under house arrest during the seven-week conflict, and wounding dozens who dared challenge it.

It also accused the Islamist movement of "stealing" aid bound for ordinary people in Gaza in order to "distribute it to its supporters or sell it on the black market".

Hamas dismissed the statement as a smear campaign organised by a movement whose popularity in the West Bank has slumped since the war.

A recent opinion poll found that if a presidential election were held now, Hamas’ former premier Ismail Haniyeh would easily win, taking 61 per cent of the votes compared with 32 per cent for Abbas.

During the fighting, Hamas was seen as the only Palestinian force willing to stand up to Israel, squaring up to its military might and firing rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Fateh, by comparison, has been increasingly associated with the West Bank forces who engage in security cooperation with Israel.

In order to redress the balance, Abbas is hoping to secure a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to the Israeli occupation within three years.

In the likely event of a US veto, officials say Abbas will consider fast-tracking an application to become party to the International Criminal Court with a view to possible prosecution of Israel over its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

But such a diplomatic initiative is unlikely to offset the political gains chalked up by Hamas during the war.

‘Shadow government’ 

“After the victory in Gaza, the forces of the Palestinian Authority must change their attitude and come back into the arms of their people, instead of the arms of the occupation,” Hamas said last week.

And it denounced a ban on demonstrations and a wave of arrests in the West Bank, that has seen hundreds of its members detained.

The Gaza war was a chance for Hamas to show through its military prowess that it was still relevant, Awkel said, following charges it had signed the reconciliation deal “from a position of weakness”.

In the months leading up to the unity deal, Hamas was so broke that it could not even pay its own 45,000 employees.

Israel’s eight-year blockade of the territory, compounded by an Egyptian lockdown on its southern border, has sparked a major economic crisis.

A dispute over who should pay Hamas employees after Haniyeh’s government stood down in June proved to be the first crack in the unity deal.

Fights broke out at banks after the Palestinian Authority’s Gaza-based staff were paid but Hamas employees were not.