Palestinian interior minister Nasr Yussuf and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz failed to reach an agreement on Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said late Monday.
“The meeting was negative, it did not bring any results,” the official said, according to AFP. “The Israeli side tried to push the Palestinians to fight among themselves,” he added.
He regretted that Israeli officials had “again failed to stand by their commitments”.
Meanwhile, Hamas’ top leader, Khaled Meshaal, noted his movement remained committed to the calm as long as Israel halted all aggression and released prisoners. “We will retaliate against any violations if the aggressions continue and we have the right to defend and protect our Palestinian people,” the Damascus-based chief was quoted as saying in Al-Quds newspaper.
On Monday, Hamas urged its supporters in Gaza to take to the streets in demonstrations to protest the Palestinian courts' verdicts about nullifying some of the local election results that took place recently in Gaza Strip, where Hamas gained significant wins.
For his part, a Fatah official, Abdullah Al-Efranji on Monday accused Hamas of aspiring to grab power, with "Israeli help." He accused Hamas of exploiting mosques for their propagandas and of insulting the PA and Fatah leaderships.
In a related development, the Islamic bloc in the Aqsa University, Khan Younis, on Monday ended its sit-in protest following the Fatah students’ assault on one of its members that left him suffering severe wounds. According to PIC, the bloc, affiliated with the Hamas Movement, was protesting the varsity administration’s refusal to hold students’ election. The current students’ council was appointed and dominated by Fatah affiliates. The Fatah youths tore Islamic banners and threw stones at Hamas students prompting clashes between the two parties.
