The Palestinian leadership rejected Tuesday the ceasefire reached between Israel and Palestinian factions, considering it a “framework for a broader political deal.”
The leadership supports the truce, but according to the 2014 agreement signed in Cairo between a Palestinian Liberation Organization-led delegation, which included Palestinian factions, and Israel, said PLO Executive Committee and Fatah Movement Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad.
However, the recent truce is different, he added, expressing regret that Hamas was part of it along with some PLO factions.
In statements to the official Palestine TV station, he accused Hamas of exploiting the truce to create a political framework for a broader deal that would separate the Gaza Strip, which the movement controls, from the West Bank.
“Instead of addressing the situation in Gaza, the truce aims at creating a political framework that paves the way for a political deal that would facilitate the establishment of a political entity in the Strip that would replace the two-state solution.”
“Negotiations should be carried out by the PLO and its president, not a faction. We in the movement (Fatah) did not carry out any negotiations,” Ahmad stressed.
He pointed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on easing restrictions on Hamas in Gaza in order to maintain its rule there, prolong the Palestinian division and hinder the formation of a state.
“Despite Netanyahu’s public statements that facilitating the entry of funds into the Strip has political purposes in separating Gaza from the West Bank, Hamas has demanded an increase in regional funds to $40 million,” Ahmad explained.
He accused Hamas of sending through this agreement a clear message to the Israeli government that it is a substitute for the PLO and part of the contentious so-called “Deal of the Century” for peace that the Trump administration is preparing.
This explains why the United States is part of this move, Ahmad said, stressing that negotiations should only be carried out by the PLO, which is the only legal representative of the Palestinians.
He did not rule out the possibility of meetings being held in the future between the US administration and Hamas, declaring that no power on earth will be able to separate Gaza from the West Bank.
