Hamas reportedly offers to hand over Gaza to Palestinian Authority

Hamas leaders are ready to return control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, according to a Lebanon-based news agency.

By World Israel News Staff

Hamas leaders are ready to return control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, according to a Tuesday report from the Lebanon-based pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen network.

Hamas leaders agree to transfer power to Fatah’s control in exchange for a promise that the Palestinian Authority  form a unity government with Hamas. Hamas insists the unity government must be formed within 45 days, according to Al-Mayadeen.

Hamas’s central demand, and the one which is likely to cause the PA to reject the offer, according to Israel Hayom, is that new elections be held within six months, including in Judea and Samaria.

Israel Hayom says the PA will probably not accept this condition for fear that elections will bring Hamas to power.

Hamas and Fatah had reached a reconciliation agreement in October 2017 in which Hamas agreed to hand over control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party, Fatah.

However, the deal was never implemented, and the December 1, 2017 deadline for transfer came and went, Arutz 7 news reports.

Relations between Hamas and the PA have been tense for over a year. In an effort to break Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip, PA President Mahmoud Abbas vowed “painful and unprecedented” actions against his rival in 2017. These included suspending payments to the Gaza Strip’s civil servants.