Off the wire
Spanish treasury minister hints at future tax cuts  • 71 killed in airstrikes, clashes with IS militants in Iraq  • Israel bans entry of UN human rights envoy  • N China looks to wind power for winter heating  • Housing sales rise in Spain during April  • Roundup: Efforts mount to boost start-up funding in the Netherlands  • U.S. stocks open sharply lower after collapse of Greece talks  • Roundup: Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir already departed S. Africa: gov't lawyer  • Quake-hit Nepal hopes for investments from Chinese firms  • Jordan concerned over UNRWA's financial crisis  
You are here:   Home

News Analysis: Eight-year-long internal split worsens living condition in Gaza

Xinhua, June 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Eight years of internal division between Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) kept the Gaza Strip's populations living under harsh conditions and endless conflicts with Israel.

This division started in June 2007 when Hamas rooted out PNA security forces and seized control of the Gaza Strip. Since then, living conditions in Gaza have been deteriorating due to a tight Israeli blockade imposed on the coastal enclave.

Over the past eight years, the two sides have reached a series of reconciliation deals, agreements and understandings in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

However, they have so far failed to put an end to their feuds, which resulted in two entities -- one in Gaza ruled by Hamas and one in the West Bank ruled by PNA.

The fate of the Gaza Strip remained unclear, especially after the large-scale Israeli military air and ground offensive waged on the enclave last July.

DIVISION DEEPENED

Palestinian observers said the internal split is endless although an agreement was reached early last year and the first ever unity government was formed in June last year.

According to the agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah, the leading secular Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a technocrat government was formed as a first phase and then after six months, the Palestinians go for general parliamentary and presidential elections.

However, nothing has improved or developed due to deep differences between Fatah and Hamas. Meanwhile they have been keeping trading accusations.

Fatah accused Hamas of keeping its grip on the Gaza Strip and refusing to hand over the unity government the control over the interior security and the crossing points with Israel and Egypt.

Hani al-Masri, West Bank political analyst, told Xinhua that the division between Gaza Strip and the West Bank deepened vertically and horizontally.

"All deals, agreements and understandings reached between Fatah and Hamas are now frozen," he said.

He added that "because there is no real reconciliation between the two rivals and the agreements are expected to collapse, I see no indication that they are willing to work together, for example, to reactivate the inoperative parliament."

HUMANITARIAN DETERIORATION

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has been deteriorating due to the Israeli blockade that was imposed on the enclave eight years ago. During the past eight years, Israel waged three wars on the enclave.

The hardest and longest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip was the one waged last summer that left large destruction and increased rates of unemployment and poverty.

Efforts of the United Nations to speed up a reconstruction plan, aided by international and Arab donors, are not fruitful, and the reconstruction process is going slowly.

The World Bank reported earlier that unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip climbed to 43 percent. Talal Oukal, Gaza political analyst, told Xinhua that the situation in the Gaza Strip "is tragic and catastrophic."

"The last Israeli war waged on Gaza was the hardest ever with unprecedented cost that left larger destruction without either lifting the Israeli siege or starting an immediate reconstruction plan," Ouka said.

Meanwhile, Adnan Abu Aamer, the political science professor at al-Ummah University in Gaza, told Xinhua that he doesn't expect a new wave of conflict with Israel.

"I believe that there are efforts to agree on a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza Hamas-led militants," he said.

He added that "Israel is showing a fact that although several rockets annoyed the Egyptian-brokered truce in recent weeks, it is not interested in new confrontations with Hamas in Gaza."

He expected that Israel may ease the blockade, including allowing more building materials into the Gaza Strip. However, he thinks it is possible to witness the tension relations between Israel and Gaza militant groups escalating suddenly. Endit