Hamas wants to play a role post the war in Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinian group is currently having meetings with Fatah. The meetings indicate the Islamist group will retain influence after Israel’s war in Gaza.
Talks between Hamas and Fatah in China
China will host talks between Hamas and Fatah in mid-June. The talks follow two recent rounds of reconciliation talks, one in China and one in Russia.
China’s foreign ministry declined to comment.
The next meeting will be held amid attempts by international mediators to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza. One of the sticking points being the “day-after” plan. How will this enclave be governed?
Hamas was shunned by the West long before its Oct. 7 attacks. But the meetings between Hamas and Fatah point to the post-war order in the Palestinian territories.
Fatah controls Palestinian politics in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas wants new technocratic government
Sources within Hamas say they want Fatah to agree to a new technocratic administration for the West Bank and Gaza. This will be part of a wider political deal.
Senior Hamas official Basim Naim said. “We are speaking about political partnership and political unity to restructure the Palestinian entity. Whether Hamas is in the government or outside it, that is not a prime demand of the movement and it doesn’t see it a condition for any reconciliation.”
Hamas will survive the Gaza war
The prospect of Hamas surviving as an influential political player is a thorny issue for Western states.
Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war goal of destroying the Iran-backed group, most observers agree Hamas will exist in some form after a ceasefire.
An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement has deep reach and ideological roots in Palestinian society.
The United States and EU oppose any role for Hamas in governing Gaza after the war. Still, US officials have privately expressed doubt Israel will eradicate the group. A senior US official said Washington thought it unlikely Israel could achieve “total victory”.
Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for Israel’s military says killing every member of Hamas is unrealistic and not the goal of the Israeli army. But destroying Hamas as a governing authority is “an achievable and attainable military objective.”
With inputs from Reuters
