by Yona Schnitzer
It has been two weeks since Fatah and Hamas announced the reconciliation between the two battling Palestinian Authority factions, but Israel has yet to officially address the issue.
On Monday, a delegation headed by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah traveled from Ramallah to Gaza to hold a government meeting, marking the first time since 2014 that a PA official has visited Gaza.
Speaking about the reconciliation efforts and their possible ramifications on peace talks with Israel, Jibril Rajoub, Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, told the Israel Public Broadcast Corporation (Kan) that Hamas is willing to live in a state within the 1967 borders, and that the group has “no more interest in wars.”
Rajoub noted during the interview: “Egypt is taking care of [the matter of] your missing persons,” hinting at a possible Israeli stake in the negotiations and referring to the two fallen Israeli soldiers whose bodies have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Operation Protective Edge in 2014 – IDF Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, as well as living Israeli citizens Avera Mengisto, Hisham Sha’aban al-Sayid, and Juma’ah Ibrahim Abu Anima – each having crossed into Gaza on his own and since believed to be held by Hamas.
IDF Brig. Gen. (Res.) Shlomo Brom, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) that the reason Israel has yet to address the developing reconciliation, may be a desire to avoid friction with Egypt, which is mediating the talks between Fatah and Hamas and sees reconciliation as a major policy goal.
Brom suggested another possible reason for Israel’s silence may have to do with the fact that there have been reconciliation attempts in the past which have never amounted to anything, and that “Israel is basically waiting to see if it is serious.”
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilead, head of the Israeli Institute for Policy and Strategy, said he was skeptical that any reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas would moderate the Islamic group’s stance. “There is no such thing as a moderate Hamas,” he said. “They are not abandoning the notion of violence against Israel.”
Gilead, a former Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Ministry of Defense, also stated that, in his opinion, in the framework of a reconciliation agreement, the military wing of Hamas will not forfeit its power.