GAZA CITY: A new round of Palestinian reconciliation talks experienced its first sign of trouble on Tuesday as the Hamas militant group said it would not give up its vast weapons arsenal, putting it at odds with both the rival Fatah movement and Israel.
The tough comments by the Hamas supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, provided a reminder of the long road that lies ahead after this week’s launch of talks with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, according to The Associated Press.
The Palestinian government on Tuesday held its weekly Cabinet meeting in Gaza for the first time in three years. Abbas’ Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah arrived in Hamas-controlled Gaza earlier on Monday as a practical step in the Palestinian national reconciliation agreement that was achieved through Egyptian mediation.
In a speech before the beginning of the meeting, Hamdallah said that the Fatah delegation came to Gaza to address administrative issues. “I urge everybody to unite and support the Palestinian leadership, and to prioritize the public interest over the factional one,” he said.
“We appreciate the important job Egypt did to grant the achievement of the reconciliation.”
Head of the Egyptian intelligence Khaled Fawzy traveled to Gaza to meet the Palestinian government, following a meeting in Ramallah with Abbas. Fawzy is the highest ranking Egyptian official to visit Gaza since 2007.
“I’m convinced that you are able to implement your promises for the benefit of your people,” he said. “I’m waiting for you in Cairo, your home, and you will do it and succeed. History will register that you have unified your people.”
In a televised speech, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed that Egypt seeks to fulfill the demands of the Palestinian people, and that disagreements must be resolved with the cooperation of all Arab countries.
Hamas congratulated the Palestinian people on the development, saying, “We, as the Hamas movement, are looking to flip the chapter of division, and to open a new chapter full of tolerance.”
In a TV interview, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his group would never give up its armed struggle against Israel.
“As long as there is occupation on the ground, our people have the right to possess weapons and resist the occupation with all forms of resistance,” he told a private TV channel.
In a gesture to Abbas, he said Hamas will not go back to war against Israel unilaterally. “We are ready to negotiate with the Palestinian factions and Fatah on unifying the decision of peace and war,” he said.
Such concessions are unlikely to satisfy Abbas, who issued his own tough statement late Monday saying that “everything must be in the hands of the Palestinian Authority.”
He said he would not agree to reproduce the “Hezbollah model” of Lebanon, where the armed militant group acts freely under the watch of a weak central government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said his government will not accept a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions that puts Israel at risk.
He said any deal must include recognizing Israel, disbanding Hamas’ military wing and cutting ties with Hamas’ patron Iran.
While previous reconciliation attempts have failed, years of international isolation and steadily worsening conditions in Gaza have pushed Hamas toward compromise.
The real work begins next week in Cairo, where Egyptian mediators will host talks between the Palestinian rivals. There is no set time frame for the negotiations.
First rifts emerge in Palestinian reconciliation talks
First rifts emerge in Palestinian reconciliation talks
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.
