Fatah official: Hamas is attempting “to cover its inability to manage the affairs of our residents in Gaza”

“The Fatah Movement expressed its strong condemnation and rejection of Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri’s statements, which included a series of lies and deceptions that harm our people’s unity, its struggle, and its national project. Head of the [Fatah] Mobilization and Organization Commission’s Information Office Munir Al-Jaghoub said yesterday [Sept. 20, 2018] that the Hamas Movement’s insistence on repeating its broken record over and over regarding ‘the sanctions against Gaza’ is nothing but an exaggeration in its attempts to cover its inability to manage the affairs of our residents in Gaza and the bankruptcy of the tyrannical coup project (apparently refers to 2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip; see note below –Ed.), which treats the Gaza Strip as a hostage that Hamas uses for its wretched bargaining with the occupation. This is only in order to establish the coup’s rule and defend its leaders, while it is throwing the members of our people in Gaza into confrontations with the Israeli killing machine without providing them with even minimal means of defense, even though it boasts day and night with hollow words about ‘the weapons of the resistance,’ behind which it hides in order to defend its coup project.”

2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip - Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah won the 2005 Palestinian Authority Presidential election. However, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a majority of 74 out of 132 seats, to Fatah’s 45 seats. Fatah’s rule of the PA Presidency and Hamas’ rule of the PA government led to friction and eventually armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas defeated Fatah militarily in the Gaza Strip in 2007, and since then Hamas rules in Gaza while the PA continues to rule the West Bank under Fatah.