AMMAN: Hamas is determined to reconcile with Fatah and end the decade-long Palestinian division, the group’s new leader Ismael Haniyeh told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
“We are serious about carrying out the needed steps to end the split with a strong will, and unify Palestinian efforts with the single goal of confronting the challenges facing our cause,” Haniyeh said in a phone call to New York, where Abbas is attending the UN General Assembly.
The Palestinian leadership has welcomed the new moves by the Islamist group that governs Gaza.
“The current political environment represented by Hamas’ moves are well received and viewed positively, with the hope that Egypt will continue to sponsor and guarantee these steps,” Fatah spokesman Naser Kidwwa, a former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) ambassador to the UN, told Arab News.
“After their statement dissolving the administrative committee, we will need to see the national accords government hold a cabinet meeting in Gaza, followed by talks between Fatah and Hamas in the presence of our Egyptian brothers, then much wider talks involving all Palestinian factions and independent personalities.
“We seem to be on the right path, but this is a difficult and long journey that requires goodwill from all.”
Dr. Naji Sharab, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said there was optimism among politicians but people in Gaza were still skeptical because there had been so many reconciliation false alarms in the past.
“The road ahead is difficult because the years of the division have left their marks in the areas of security, economy and public order,” he told Arab News.
Sharab, however, believes the current effort is serious. “Egypt is playing a major role this time and is pressing both sides.”
He also believes disunity and schism have become more of a liability than an asset to both sides.
“There are many worries and concerns because we are facing a long-term problem in order to merge a system built almost exclusively on one party being in power and negating all others, to a system of national unity and power sharing.”
One of the fears being expressed in both Gaza and the West Bank is that Hamas could turn into the Gaza equivalent of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Fadi Abu Baker, a PLO employee and a Fatah local leader in Al-Bireh, told Arab News that Hamas’ move toward reconciliation was no more than a clever maneuver.
“Unless they give up the security system they established, we will not have total national unity, and we will be seeing a situation similar to the vast powers that Hezbollah has in Lebanon, without necessarily having armed men on the streets.”
We are serious about unity, Hamas chief tells Abbas
We are serious about unity, Hamas chief tells Abbas
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
