Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have evaluated renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and are declaring themselves displeased:

Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah said the PA had relinquished many of its initial preconditions to the negotiations in order to revive the way of the Oslo Accords, which he said has been moribund for years. Yusuf Rizqah, political adviser to Hamas Prime Minister in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh, also blamed the PA for failing to produce written assurances with which the US could secure Palestinian goals.

The terror group Hamas had previously described the negotiations, which began with preliminary talks this week in Washington, DC, as “a catastrophe.” Gaza-based Palestinians also fired rockets at Israeli civilians as preliminary talks were taking place earlier this week, in what was widely seen as an attempt to spoil the negotiations.

At stake is whether a future Palestinian government will be able or willing to impose sovereignty or control over the territories it claims for itself as a state.

Efforts to establish a single government in the Gaza Strip and in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank have consistently failed. A top official from Hamas’s rival Fatah – the Palestinian faction which controls Palestinian territories in the West Bank – earlier this week gave Hamas until August 4th to form a unity government which would politically unite the two areas. Hamas rejected the ultimatum.

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