In yet another sign that the Hamas-Fatah unity government is crumbling, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Monday urged Prime Minister Rami Hamallah to carry out his responsibilities in Gaza.
Speaking to the Ma’an news agency, Haniyeh said that Gazans have been disappointed with the performance of the national consensus government.
“They expected the government to rebuild Gaza, pay salaries, and lift the siege,” Haniyeh said.
He stressed that the Hamdallah-led government is responsible for Gaza just as it is responsible for Judea and Samaria, adding that contacts between Hamas officials and the unity government were ongoing.
“We are in contact at numerous levels in order to remedy this situation. I hereby tell Dr. Rami: You must take quick steps to remedy the health situation. It is unacceptable to treat Gaza so harshly,” Haniyeh told Ma’an.
The comments come a day after a Hamas-affiliated member of the unity government accused Fatah and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, of thwarting reconciliation between the rival parties.
The Hamas-Fatah unity government was set up in June after seven years of hostilities, fueled by Hamas’s bloody takeover of Gaza in 2007.
Differences of opinion have surfaced over several issues, however, including the war in Gaza, reactions to the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and the delayed payment of wages for government workers in Gaza in the weeks leading up to Operation Protective Edge.
Tensions worsened after Hamas publicly executed dozens of Gazans allegedly “collaborating with Israel,” but whom Fatah officials say were in fact members of their group singled out for their political affiliation. That incident prompted one Fatah official to compare Hamas to global jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS).
Not long beforehand, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) exposed a large-scale coup had been planned by Hamas in Judea and Samaria to overthrow the PA and Abbas’s Fatah party, under orders given from Hamas officials abroad.