Hamas says that these camps are being held with a “resistance flavor” in order to raise new generations of Palestinians on jihad.
Hamas seems to have reached the conclusion that the reconciliation pact with Abbas will not do it any good. As one Hamas spokesman put it, “We have discovered that Abbas is the same Abbas. He claims he wants reconciliation with us, but at the same time he is helping the Zionist enemy in its war against Hamas in the West Bank.”
Abbas’s refusal to pay salaries to more than 50,000 Hamas employees in the Gaza Strip since the formation of the new government has only reinforced the Islamist movement’s conviction that the reconciliation accord with Fatah was a bad deal.
Hamas apparently feels betrayed by both Abbas and his Fatah faction. All this is happening while Abbas continues to talk about Palestinian “unity” and his commitment to the peace process with Israel.
Like many in the international community, Abbas is continuing to bury his head in the sand by refusing to see what his Hamas partners are up to.
The “national consensus government” will now have to decide whether it is headed toward peace with Israel or toward war.