Hamas and Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have agreed to form a committee to administer the Gaza Strip after the war, we learned from negotiators from both camps.
Following discussions in Cairo under the aegis of the Egyptian authorities, the Palestinian enemy brothers approved a draft agreement which will have to be validated by a presidential decree from Mahmoud Abbas. According to the text, the committee should be made up of ten to fifteen personalities not affiliated with either party and would have authority over all matters relating to humanitarian aid, education, health, the economy and the reconstruction of the territory ravaged by the bombings. He would also be responsible for the Rafah crossing point towards Egypt.
But in the process, in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, the plan was rejected by Jibril Rajoub, the influential secretary-general of Fatah, who saw it as a factor of “division” among the Palestinians. “We want one government, one security apparatus and one policy. Any discussion or effort outside of this framework is a mistake,” he detailed.
According to him, it is essential to “protect” institutions such as the Palestinian Authority rather than “forming separate committees here and there between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.” “We will not participate in any approach that reinforces division or conforms to the will” of Benjamin Netanyahu, he said.
Furthermore, Israel will first have to leave the Gaza Strip, now completely militarily occupied. However, Israel has not commented on this agreement plan, underlines Palestinian analyst Ghassan Khatib, professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank and former member of the government. And “if this agreement is implemented, it will free Israel from its obligations as an occupier,” he warns.
The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a group of parties that does not include Hamas and in which Fatah is dominant, is due to meet Tuesday evening, according to one of its members, and could decide to to accept or not the Cairo agreement.
