Hamas and Fatah are continuing to fight each other for funds and influence instead of working to rebuild Gaza, Avi Issacharoff reported Sunday in The Times of Israel.

Issacharoff reports that at the end of December, a meeting in Gaza between Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and Hamas to discuss reconstruction ended inconclusively.  Issacharoff illustrates his observation with a conflict between the two group over a checkpoint.

The transfer of authority at an Israel-Gaza checkpoint is a case in point. Up until last week, Hamas administered its own checkpoint, called Arba-Arba (4-4), a kilometer south of the official Palestinian checkpoint near the Erez Crossing with Israel. The official checkpoint, which is called Hamsa-Hamsa (5-5), has been manned by PA representatives working under the Palestinian Civil Affairs Ministry. According to the arrangement, Hamas would check every Palestinian arriving from or leaving to Israel, as would the PA.

Last week, though, Hamas decided to open another checkpoint at Hamsa-Hamsa and erected a makeshift office there staffed by members of Hamas. The PA then decided to evacuate the site, and since then, only patients seeking urgent medical care in Israel or the West Bank are allowed to cross at Erez.

In addition, Hamas has been arresting members of Fatah, the political party that dominates the PA, and smashing ATMs to ensure that Fatah’s civil servants do not get paid as long as Hamas’s civil servants are also not getting paid.

Neri Zilber observed last month in Politico that while Fatah and Hamas continue to jockey for influence, it is “Israel, of all the parties involved, has shown the greatest degree of flexibility towards a Gaza Strip still ruled by Hamas.”

[Photo: Meshik / YouTube ]