The decade-long Palestinian split looks set to deepen in the newxt few months, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas poised to take multiple measures against Gaza to squeeze Hamas.
Analysts say the measures would widen the gap between Hamas-run Gaza and the West Bank, where Abbas’ government has limited self-rule.
Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party have been at loggerheads since Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ forces in 2007, a year after sweeping parliamentary elections.
Hamas has since fought three wars with Israel.
Multiple reconciliation attempts between the Palestinian factions have failed, but Egypt thought it had made a breakthrough in late 2017 when the two sides agreed to eventually share power.
As part of that agreement, Hamas withdrew from border crossings between Gaza and Egypt and Israel, allowing the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority to return and the Egyptian border to be reopened regularly.
The reconciliation agreement has since collapsed.
The Palistinian Authority on Jan. 6 announced that it would withdraw from the Egyptian border crossing, creating a dilemma for Cairo about whether to leave it open with Hamas in control.
Senior officials close to Abbas say he is looking for other measures to punish Hamas.
Among these could be removing staff from the crossings between Israel and Gaza, making it difficult for the Jewish state to allow anything into the territory without dealing directly with Hamas, which it calls a terrorist organization.
They could also include cutting salaries to families of Hamas prisoners or rescinding Palestinian passports for Hamas employees.
Abbas has also pledged to dissolve the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament, which although it has not met since the 2007 split is still nominally the basis for new laws.
“Very important decisions against Hamas are being discussed,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said that the Palistinian Authority spent about US$100 million per month in Gaza, including for electricity subsidies, and was looking to cut back significantly.
“Those that want to rule Gaza must bear the responsibility of governing it,” the official said.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said that it had seen similar threats before.
“Any type of sanctions such as electricity, preventing medicine, closing the border or cutting the salaries are intended to blackmail residents into rising against Hamas and they fail,” he told reporters. “This is the most that Abbas can do.”
Abbas’ government froze contacts with the administration of US President Donald Trump after Washington in 2017 said it would move the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The deepening split between the two factions weakens their ability to respond to such pressure, said Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
The Palestinian Authority’s withdrawal from the border crossings was part of a “package of measures designed to try and squeeze Hamas,” Lovatt said.
“It is not irreversible, but it is certainly a very negative step. This is short-term thinking triumphing longer-term strategy,” he said.
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