Fatah official: Israel "painstakingly planned" Fatah-Hamas rift

‎“Fatah Central Committee member and ‎supervisor of the issue of national ‎reconciliation [Azzam Al-Ahmad]… ‎emphasized that the rift [between Fatah ‎and Hamas] in 2007 was the result of ‎Israeli planning, led by [then Israeli Prime ‎Minister] Ariel Sharon through the ‎unilateral [Israeli] retreat from the Gaza ‎Strip, [which was done] without ‎coordination with the PA. He said: ‘The rift ‎is one of the fruits of the Sharon ‎government, which painstakingly planned ‎it in order to establish a Palestinian state ‎in Gaza, at the expense of Egyptian ‎lands.’”‎