Fatah tells Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza to safeguard Palestinians

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement called on its Islamist rivals Hamas to relinquish power in order to safeguard the ‘existence’ of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians inspect the rubble following an Israeli strike on a fishing harbour in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement called on its Islamist rivals Hamas on Saturday to relinquish power in order to safeguard the “existence” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas must show compassion for Gaza, its children, women and men,” Fatah spokesman Monther al-Hayek said.

He called on Hamas to “step aside from governing and fully recognise that the battle ahead will lead to the end of Palestinians’ existence” if it remains in power in Gaza.

Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, and subsequent attempts at reconciliation have failed.

The territory has been devastated by an Israeli offensive in retaliation for the attack by Hamas and other Palestinian militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamas has said repeatedly it is willing to leave power in Gaza once the war is over but categorically excludes giving up its weapons.

“We are ready to accept any agreement regarding the administration of Gaza (post-war), and are not interested in participating in it,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said in a statement on Saturday.

“What’s important is nat­ional consensus,” he said, recalling that Hamas had endorsed an Egyptian proposal for an independent committee of professionals and technocrats to manage Gaza post-war and oversee reconstruction.

Abbas says the committee must report to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, the sole legitimate entity to govern Gaza according to him. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected this.

Following disagreement over the next steps in a January 19 ceasefire in the Gaza war, Israel resumed airstrikes on Tuesday, followed by ground operations the day after.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas. Picture: PPO/AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: Yair Sagi/Pool/AFP

On Friday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas freed the remaining Israeli hos­tages seized in the October 7, 2023, attack.

Israel, meanwhile, launched a new wave of strikes on Lebanon in response to a rocket attack from across the border on Saturday.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Katz ordered “a second wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”, the defence ministry said, in the largest escalation since a November 27 ceasefire.

It said the strikes were “a response to rocket fire towards Israel and a continuation of the first ­series of strikes carried out this morning” against southern Lebanon. Israel’s military said six rockets, three of which were intercepted, were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday, setting off air raid sirens.

Militant group Hezbollah denied involvement in the rocket attack, calling Israel’s accusations “pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon”.

In further domestic turmoil, Israel’s opposition leader on Saturday called for a general strike if Mr Netanyahu refused to obey a ­Supreme Court decision freezing the government’s dismissal of the internal security chief.

If the government “decides to disobey the court’s decision, it will become a government outside of the law,” Yair Lapid told thousands of demonstrators in central Tel Aviv. “If that happens, the entire country should stop,” he said. “The only system that must not stop is the security system.”

An unprecedented move to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has deepened divisions in the country.

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