Hamas: Fatah’s Conditions Make Reconciliation Impossible

Fatah’s conditions “make reaching reconciliation very impossible”, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh said yesterday.

Speaking at a conference to mark 30 years since the movement was launched, Haniyeh said Hamas “insists” the 11-year Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip must come to an end “without any political costs and not as part of the deal of the century or in return for disarming the Palestinian resistance”.

Hamas, he said, “is walking towards ending the siege and achieving reconciliation in two parallel tracks, but this was undermined by Fatah’s conditions which make reaching reconciliation very impossible.”

The movement is ready to go to Cairo along with all the Palestinians factions and on the basis that all of them would be partners in taking national decisions regarding the reconciliation.

He called on Palestinian factions to adopt a plan based on a number of strategies to save the Palestinian cause.

Among these strategies, he said, is “the continuous protection of the resistance, building a national Palestinian unity based on respecting partnership, adhering to Palestinian agreements, being opened to the whole world, international bodies and parties and working to end the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza.”

Haniyeh recognised that there could be political differences among the Palestinian factions but said Hamas “does not have any Palestinian enemies”.