Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to arrive in Gaza Thursday as the city sees relative calm following a ceasefire agreement on yesterday night.
Abbas, also chairman of Fatah, will oversee implementation of the ceasefire himself after previous ceasefire declarations have failed to stop Hamas-Fatah infighting over the past four days.
Abbas will be holding a meeting with his Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas to follow up closely latest calmness efforts.
Witnesses, however, said that gunmen are still present in different parts of Gaza, despite the Wednesday night ceasefire, which was followed by one more death toll of five persons.
Sources at the president’s office said that Abbas has cancelled a due visit to Jordan, where he was expected to meet with King AbdullaII for talks on the Arab peace initiative.
The Jordanian Monarch warned yesterday of the Gaza infighting, voicing concern that it would undermine chances of peace in the region and calling on the fighting parties to resort to clam and dialogue instead of the language of guns.
Meanwhile, PM Ismail Hanya, hailed Fatah and Hamas halt of their fighting and withdrawal of their militants from the streets.
Haniya’s advisor, Ahmad Yousef, believed that the Mecca power-sharing deal, signed early in February needs to be revised in a way that will allow all parties concerned to commit to their obligations.
Yousef asserted that a Mecca 2 needs to be ratified with the absence of security leaders.
Palestinian parliamentarians called yesterday in Ramallah for the dismissal of some security leaders, who have not shown cooperation with regard to enforcing order in the Palestinian street.
Palestinian interior minister, Hani aL-Qawsmi, resigned early this week over what he considered reluctance by both Fatah and Hamas to implement his 100-day security plan.
Asked on Monday by IMEMC whether there has been lack of cooperation by the various security bodies, aL-Qawasmi maintained “actually good intentions are there, I have said before that the obstacles do not lie in the security bodies”.
Palestinian voices called for declaring a state of emergency across the occupied Palestinian territories in order to contain the current volatile situation in Gaza.
In a phone interview with IMEMC, Ibrahim Abrash, a Gaza political analyst and professor of politics, warned of the tense situation.
“What is going on here in Gaza is unfortunately sending a negative message that the Palestinians can not govern themselves. Therefore, this makes renewal of custody over the Gaza Strip and West Bank, possible”
Internal unrest in Gaza has been doubled over the past 24 hours as Israel launched air strikes on Hamas targets in Rafah. The raids killed at least 4 and wounded about 30 others, in a time Israel threatened Thursday of carrying out a large-scale offensive on Gaza.
Dozens of homemade shells have been fired by Palestinian resistance groups on nearby Israeli towns over the past couple of days.
Continued intensive Hamas-Fatah infighting threatens a fragile national unity government, which is already suffering from isolation since a Hamas-led government has taken power in March2006. Since then, about 400 people have been killed during internal violence.
Since March2006, the Palestinian territories have been going through a crippling economic embargo that has caused 85 percent of poverty rate and approximately 70 percent of unemployment.
The international Quartet for promoting peace in the Middle East (United Nations, United States, European Union, Russia) still demands the Palestinian government, made up now of Hamas and Fatah, to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept signed peace agreements before it wins recognition.
