Omar Abdel-Baqui
Much of the friction dates back to 2007, when Hamas forcibly ousted Fatah, the party that controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, from Gaza after winning legislative elections.
RAMALLAH, West Bank—Signs of a civil conflict between Hamas and its Palestinian rivals are beginning to build, raising far-reaching questions about what a postwar government in Gaza might look like—and how long it might last.
Hamas late last month detained several Palestinian Authority officials in Gaza and tried to prevent an aid convoy overseen by Palestinian Authority staff from traveling in the enclave, accusing them of working with Israel in the first standoff between the two groups since the Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the war. Hamas also said it would set out to arrest more people affiliated with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
Meanwhile Fatah, the party that controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, last week issued a rare public rebuke of Iran, one of Hamas’s primary funders and supporters. It said it rejects Tehran’s attempts to dictate what happens in the region while also criticizing the creeping influence of other foreign powers in Palestinian affairs.
The spat is a sign of the deep-seated animosity between Hamas and Fatah and how it might complicate any attempt to establish a new administration in Gaza once Israel concludes its military campaign in the strip, now entering its seventh month.
Much of the friction between the two dates back to 2007, when Hamas forcibly ousted Fatah from Gaza after winning legislative elections in the Palestinian territories the year before. Since then the split has widened, with the hard-line Islamists of Hamas periodically accusing the largely secular, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank of working with Israel and the West.
The tension now appears to be deepening. The U.S. and other Western powers have been looking to a reformed Palestinian Authority, which favors achieving Palestinian statehood through diplomacy, to take a significant leadership role in Gaza and prevent a power vacuum from forming that could allow Hamas to continue in some form.
Palestinians lifted flags during a rally marking the 59th anniversary of the Fatah movement foundation in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank in December. PHOTO: ZAIN JAAFAR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly opposed to a Palestinian state, is wary of the Palestinian Authority governing both the West Bank and Gaza, though some senior Israeli officials haven’t ruled out working with the Ramallah-based body or Fatah members.
“The general understanding is that in one way or another we’re going to have to work with people who are somewhat related to the PA,” an Israeli official said. “It doesn’t mean that PA in its current form will be the authority leading Gaza.”
Hamas, for its part, is stepping up its efforts to ensure it will still play a future political role by limiting the authority’s access to the narrow strip of land.
Hamas’s interior ministry told Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV that its police on March 30 arrested six people from a “suspicious force” managed by Palestinian Authority intelligence officials that entered Gaza with the Egyptian Red Crescent Society. It said that the security force coordinated with Israel, and that Hamas will seek to arrest more people involved in the group.
Adding fuel to what was already an incendiary accusation, Hamas accused Palestinian Authority intelligence agents of plotting to sow chaos and division in Gaza, echoing its longstanding practice of labeling anyone who works with Israel as a traitor. “We call on the leadership of Fatah and the [Palestinian] Authority in Ramallah to return to the national side,” Hamas said in a statement. “The Zionist enemy is in front of you. Fight it instead of your destructive war against Gaza and its people.”
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Five of the detained Palestinian Authority officials, whom Hamas arrested in Gaza City, remain in captivity, a senior Palestinian Authority official said. Two Palestinian Authority officials from Gaza were killed in the past couple of weeks, but it isn’t clear if Israel or Hamas killed them, the official said.
The Israeli military declined to comment. Hamas officials declined to comment on the arrests and aid convoy incidents.
Fatah’s spokesman in Gaza, Munzer Al-Hayek, said Hamas is trying to eliminate any control on the ground outside of its own. “They are focused on attacking the PA, accusing it of being a foreign power,” he said in an interview.
A U.S. official said the government is aware of the reports related to Hamas-Palestinian Authority clashes. “A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza,” the official said. “There is much work to realize that vision—but we are committed to supporting steps to get there.”
The Palestinian Authority said its aid distribution initiatives are done in collaboration with the Egyptian Red Crescent Society and are solely intended to increase humanitarian aid flow into Gaza. The Egyptian Red Crescent Society said it is involved in delivering humanitarian aid, not politics.
A man handed out bags of flour in Gaza City in March, part of the humanitarian aid flowing into the enclave. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
A Hamas official said arrangements made without its involvement to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza by sea has left the group nervous about its authority in the enclave. PHOTO: SAID KHATIB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESA senior Palestinian Authority official acknowledged the presence of intelligence officials in Gaza and said some of those officials help coordinate aid distribution and are unarmed. The official denied Hamas’s assertion that Palestinian Authority officials came from outside Gaza.
“This was an Egyptian aid convoy and it was coordinated like all other convoys. Yes, the Egyptians have direct contact with the Israelis—our job was to try to coordinate and deliver some of the PA’s aid along with the Egyptians to our people,” the Palestinian official said. “This is supposed to be something that all people welcome, not attack.”
At times, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have cracked down on each other’s party members in their respective territories. The factions currently have little to no official high-level communication, political insiders say.
A senior United Nations official said while the body is cautious not to meddle in internal affairs, a power vacuum must be thwarted in Gaza postwar. “If that’s the case we can easily lose control of the entire situation,” the official said.
Masked members of the People’s Protection Committees guard a humanitarian aid truck in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in recent days. PHOTO: SAID KHATIB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESBefore the war, the Palestinian Authority maintained some funding programs in the Gaza Strip and coordinated with some ministries in the Hamas government. Thousands of people were on its payroll, though not all were active employees, analysts say. Hamas has less direct influence in the Israel-occupied West Bank, given crackdowns over the years led by the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Israeli security officials have been quietly developing a plan to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip that could eventually create a Palestinian-led governing authority there, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The plan would enlist Palestinian leaders and businessmen who have no links to Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Israel has approached several Palestinian figures for participation, including the Palestinian Authority’s top intelligence official, Majed Faraj.
Who should rule Gaza after the war? Join the conversation below.
A Hamas official said arrangements made without Hamas consultation to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza by sea has left the group nervous about its authority in the enclave.
Nasser Alkidwa, a former senior Palestinian Authority official who has worked to try to reconcile the Fatah-Hamas split, agreed, saying Hamas fears that the Palestinian Authority is seeking to infiltrate Gaza to eventually seize control. The latest arrests and convoy incidents, as well as recent mudslinging in Arabic media, suggests their rift shows little sign of relenting, Alkidwa said.
“Hamas’s motivation is simple. They are trying to show: ‘We are here and in control. You cannot bypass us and conduct your own business here,’” Alkidwa said. “Civil conflict is a valid fear, and it plays into Israeli interests.”
Carrie Keller-Lynn and Menna Farouk contributed to this article.
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