Fatah accuses Hamas of blocking national unity

The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) accused in a statement Hamas of blocking the Palestinian unity process by seeking to harm the reconciliation, by some acts against Fatah’s senior officials in Gaza or by the provocative statements of Hamas. In a statement, Fatah commented on Hamas senior official Salah Al-Bardawil’s statement in which he described the Palestinian-Israeli meetings in Amman as a ‘threat to  reconciliation’. It stressed that the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas chose the reconciliation with Hamas when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to choose the reconciliation with Hamas or the peace process. Fatah also denounced Hamas’s leaders silence of the provocative statements that was issued by Hamas’s senior officials in Gaza. The movement also condemned Al-Bardawil’s threat to "isolate the Palestinian Authority," saying “this type of threat is consistent with Israel's policy of isolating the Palestinian Authority. The Chief Executive of Palestinian Central Elections Commission in Gaza, Hisham Kuhail said separately in a press release Wednesday that Gaza Strip is not ready for carrying out elections in May, as the Commission’s offices are closed. He added “we need new offices in Gaza to be linked to the headquarters in Ramallah and recruit new employees.” “This may take about six weeks, which means there is no way of carrying out the elections in Gaza in May,” he continued. It’s worth mentioning that, according to the Palestinian reconciliation which was signed in Cairo, Fatah and Hamas agreed on carrying out elections in May.