Leaders of rival Islamic Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party are following up the fingers' bite policy, as preparations for holding the Fatah General Assembly on August 4 and the final round of inter-dialogue in Cairo on August 25 are underway.

Despite the Palestinian and the Egyptian efforts to cool down the atmosphere of tension between the two groups, and to end their feuds as soon as possible, leaders and spokesmen of the two rival groups didn't stop accusing and exerting pressure on each other.

Tensions between the two groups mounted in the last few days when Hamas announced that it would not allow 400 Gaza Fatah members to leave Gaza to attend Fatah general conference scheduled to be held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 4 unless Abbas's security forces free its West Bank prisoners.

"Alms for alms and sins for sins," Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas strongman in Gaza, said earlier in reference to releasing his movement's prisoners in the West Bank for allowing Fatah members to travel from Gaza to attend their movement's articular conference.

He said that there are over 800 Hamas members imprisoned in the jails of Abbas's security forces, adding that "it is unreasonable to keep our people imprisoned, tortured and killed, while they (Fatah) want us to allow their members to leave Gaza freely to attend their general conference."

Major goals of Hamas and Fatah

Ali Abu Shahla, a political analyst and a Gaza think tank, said that Fatah is seeking to end Hamas's control over Gaza to easier establish an independent Palestinian state in the future, adding that "Fatah wants also to keep its control over the West Bank."

"Hamas, meanwhile, wants to keep its control of the Gaza Strip and stop the pressure from Abbas's security forces on its leaders and members in the West Bank," said Abu Shahla, who ruled out that August 25 is the date when the two groups will sign on a reconciliation agreement in Cairo.

Seven rounds of bilateral dialogue have been held in Cairo since March between the two groups' negotiators. They still disagree on all the outstanding issues, mainly the unity government, the joint security force, the factional coordination committee between Hamas and Fatah and the system of the upcoming election.

Hamas-Fatah tension has also mounted as Egypt is preparing for holding a last round of dialogue in Cairo on August 25. However, this time the dialogue won't be bilateral between the two feuding groups, and other factions will be invited to join a comprehensive dialogue which will end up with signing a reconciliation agreement.

"I don't expect that August 25 is the day the dialogue will be finalized and a day to find a final solution to the inter-Palestinian crisis as it is expected. The conferees will keep postponing and delaying until each side achieves its goals that I mentioned earlier," said Abu Shahla.

Factions reject ongoing bilateral dialogue

The endless bilateral dialogue between Hamas and Fatah had angered other factions as well as the independent and intellectual Palestinian figures, who called for stopping the bilateral dialogue and immediately launching a comprehensive national dialogue that would end this endless status of feuds.

"Each round of dialogue, the two sides agree on something, and then when they meet again in another round after a month or two, each side disavows what was agreed upon before," said Akram Atallah, an academic at al-Aqsa University in Gaza city.

Atallah said that this status of rift between Fatah and Hamas can only end if three issues are put into consideration and implemented, saying, "first, the Arab League should force the two groups to resolve their disputes; second, to clearly announce which party is blocking the reconciliation."

"The third issue is to put popular pressure on the two movements by popular rallies and demonstrations in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, exactly like what has happened in other countries for ending factional feuds," said Atallah.

Fatah, Hamas responsible for the crisis

The disputes between the two groups began when Hamas movement won the parliamentary elections in January 2006, and ousted its rival Fatah party, which had been ruling the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in both West Bank and Gaza since the PNA was established in 1994.

Rajab Abu Sereyah, a Palestinian column writer and political analyst from Gaza, held both Hamas and Fatah responsible for the ongoing sufferings of the Palestinians, mainly in the Gaza Strip that has been under a tight Israeli blockade for more than two years.

"I would say that, sooner or later, and whatever disputes both have right now, I believe they will reach an agreement in the end. Neither of them can erase the other's presence in the political Palestinian arena, but it is a matter of whom will scream at the end of the fingers' bite game," said Abu Sereya.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2009)