After the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced today Thursday that they are united against the Israeli plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, we review the following, the most prominent milestones in the relationship between the two movements after the Palestinian political split in 2007:
On January 25, 2006, Hamas, which was participating for the first time in an electoral process, won the legislative elections in the Palestinian territories, ten years after the dominance of Fatah. The outgoing Legislative Council (Parliament) was elected in 1996 two years after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
On March 28, 2006, a government headed by - now head of the Hamas political bureau - Ismail Haniyeh, assumed power and entrusted key positions to movement leaders, and Israel and the United States refused to recognize the government, and maintained ties with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
There were bloody clashes between supporters of Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in January and February 2007, then in May of the same year.
On June 14, Abbas dismissed Prime Minister Haniyeh after a week of armed clashes between the two movements, and declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip.
But the next day, Hamas defeated the forces loyal to Fatah in Gaza, in what Abbas considered a "military coup". Hamas expelled Fatah members from the Gaza Strip and took control of it. In response to Hamas' control, Israel has strengthened its blockade of the Gaza Strip. About a hundred people were killed in the confrontations between the two movements.
Three failed agreements
In February 2008, the two movements signed the Mecca Agreement to form a transitional government whose task it is to organize elections, but whenever the date is set for elections, it will be postponed.
On February 6, 2012, the two movements agreed that Abbas would be assigned to lead the transitional government, but this decision, which faced opposition within Hamas, was not implemented.
In April 2014, the Palestine Liberation Organization, controlled by Fatah, signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas to end the political divide between the West Bank and Gaza. In June, it formed a unity government that included technocrats from both sides, but was unable to exercise its authority in Gaza. Abbas accused Hamas of maintaining a "parallel government" in the Strip.
In July and August 2014, the two sides demonstrated a united position after Israel launched a 50-day war on the Strip in response to the rocket fire. However, months later, the national unity government failed.
Pragmatism
On May 1, 2017, Hamas announced new political trends in its founding charter, made it clear that it was fighting a "political" rather than "religious" battle with Israel, and accepted the idea of a future Palestinian state limited to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
On the sixth of the same month, Ismail Haniyeh was elected head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, to succeed Khaled Mashal.
In March 2017, Hamas formed a "management committee" that Fatah considered a parallel government. In response, the Palestinian Authority reduced the amounts paid to Israel in exchange for electricity to the residents of the Strip, and subsequently implemented a deduction in the salaries of Gaza Strip employees.
On September 17, Hamas, "in response to Egyptian efforts", announced the dissolution of the committee, and called on Fatah to a new dialogue for reconciliation.
For the first time since 2015, the government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah headed on October 2 to the Gaza Strip, where it held its first meeting in three years.
Reconciliation not completed
On October 12, 2017, the two movements in Cairo signed a reconciliation agreement, and Hamas agreed to transfer authorities in the Strip to the Palestinian Authority, and on November 1 Hamas handed over the Palestinian Authority crossings of the Gaza Strip, which was besieged from Israel ten years ago, that In the first week of December, the Palestinian Authority will assume full management of the sector.
However, the administration's transition on the ground has been accompanied by cramps, especially regarding the responsibility for security and the fate of the employees appointed by Hamas after its control of the Strip.
On November 27, 2017, Hamas refused to hand over its weapons, and on January 29, employees of the Palestinian Authority were prevented from entering their official workplaces to which they were returning ten years later following a decision by the Palestinian government. The unions that implemented the ban said that there is no entry for them unless the issue of Hamas-appointed employees is resolved. The two sides exchanged accusations of not being committed to implementing the agreement.
On March 13, 2018, Prime Minister Hamdallah survived an explosion that coincided with the entry of a convoy of vehicles into the Gaza Strip, and Abbas accused Hamas of being responsible for the explosion, declaring sanctions, while Hamas condemned the operation and rejected the accusations against it.
On January 6, the Palestinian Authority withdrew its staff from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip, protesting Hamas 'brutal practices,' she said.
On April 14, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announced the formation of a new Palestinian government from which Hamas was excluded.
"Unity against annexation"
On January 1, 2020, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip organized a central celebration to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the start of the Fatah movement.
On July 2, 2020, the two movements announced their "unification" against the Israeli plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.