Reports: Potential Reconciliation Deal Would See Abbas’ PA Paying Hamas Salaries

TEL AVIV — Progress has been made on the issue of internal Palestinian reconciliation in discussions taking place in Egypt between the Hamas terrorist group and Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This comes after Hamas announced that it was prepared to do away with the administrative council in the Gaza Strip that effectively constitutes a shadow government parallel to that led by Abbas in Ramallah.

A senior source in Hamas told Breitbart Jerusalem that despite the air of optimism, “It’s still too early to tell if an agreement will be concluded. We laid out our demands and in previous cases a huge amount of pressure was put on president Abu Mazen (Abbas) and Fatah, mostly from Israel and the U.S., not to accept these conditions mostly regarding Hamas’ financial obligations in the Gaza Strip.”

But Arabic media reported on Sunday that among the clauses received by the Palestinian Authority that allowed for the declaration that progress has been made in reconciliation talks, the Palestinian Authority would be committed to integrate the Hamas government employees in the government institutions of the Palestinian Authority.

Under the arrangement, the PA would then return to govern the Gaza Strip, and to pay the salaries of the employees currently working in the government offices of Hamas, which would cease to govern with the return of the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip.

The agreement doesn’t specify, but is referring to tens of thousands of civil officials and so-called security personnel.

Another notable clause in the agreement is the commitment of the Fatah movement to integrate Hamas into PLO institutions. This is a problematic clause, with some in the Palestinian Authority previously having said that Hamas seeks to control PLO institutions so that, at the appropriate moment, they could cancel the agreements in place with Israel.

Another clause ensures that the tension between the sides would continue even if reconciliation is reached. According to the agreement, the Palestinian presidential guard under the Palestinian Authority would be responsible for security at border crossings, but otherwise Hamas security forces would maintain the right to investigate civilians who passed through the border crossings or were en route to the border crossings.

The Palestinian Authority would also commit, “not to harm the weapons of Palestinian resistance organizations.”

It should be noted that despite Hamas’ announcement of the dismantling of its de facto shadow government, other issues remain between the sides like the timing of elections and if presidential and parliamentary elections would take place together as Hamas demands or whether parliamentary elections would be held at the beginning with presidential elections to follow as the Fatah movement demands.