Hamas rejects Fatah's demand to hand over rule of Gaza
July 29, 2015 9:51 P.M. (Updated: July 29, 2015 9:56 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766735

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas officials on Wednesday rejected demands by Fatah
leadership to hand over rule of the Gaza Strip and called for an "uprising"
against Palestinian Authority security forces.

Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad had said on Sunday that Hamas "foiled" efforts
towards a unity government, and that the group must hand over rule of the
Gaza Strip as a condition for forming the new government.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the Fatah leader's comments created
tension and were "untrue," blaming the failure to form a unity government on
Fatah's "factionalism."

He added that Fatah's calls to reform the unity government were a media
maneuver, reiterating his movement's willingness to form the government
based on national consensus.

The unity government formed in June 2014 repeatedly failed to overcome
divisive issues between Hamas and Fatah, and the PLO appointed a committee
last month to lead negotiations for reforming the government.

The consultations have yielded little consensus thus far and received
criticism by non-Fatah factions, who convened earlier this month to condemn
recent PA arrests as hindering the negotiation process.

This sentiment continued Wednesday when deputies of the Hamas movement
renewed calls for a "revolt" against the PA over its sweeping arrests of
alleged anti-Israeli militants.

The deputies, in an act of defiance, held a meeting in the parliament
building in Gaza City that has not convened officially since 2007 when Hamas
expelled PA security forces after a week of deadly clashes.

They called for "an uprising and a revolt against the political arrests"
carried out by the PA in the West Bank and for Palestinian factions to adopt
"a firm stand against the Authority's crimes against the resistance and its
members."

The deputies condemned the PA's security cooperation with Israel under the
1993 Oslo accords as amounting to "high treason" that served "Zionist
security" interests.

Coordination in security operations as laid out in the Oslo Accords planned
for a gradual power transfer in the occupied West Bank from Israeli forces
to the PA over the course of five years.

More than 20 years on, however, Hamas and other factions continue to accuse
the PA of acting on Israel's behalf through security cooperation.

On July 7, Hamas accused the PA of having detained more than 200 of its
members in the West Bank, in a sweep that MP Khalil al-Haya charged was
aimed solely at "assisting the occupier" against anti-Israeli militants.

Hamas leader Abd al-Rahman Shadid said at the time that many of those
detained were left with signs of torture, and that the arrest campaign was
part of an organized project aiming to "eradicate the movement."

AFP contributed to this report.