Abbas 'ready to go to Gaza' in bid to end four-year rift with Hamas

Published on Wednesday 16 March 2011 16:43

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he was ready to go immediately to the Gaza Strip to try to end the four-year-old rift with the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement that rules the coastal enclave.

"I am ready to go to Gaza tomorrow to end the division and form a new government,'' Mr Abbas told senior leaders of his Fatah movement. He urged Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, to make arrangements so he could arrive within the next two to four days "so we can end this dark and dishonourable chapter of division".

On Tuesday, Mr Haniya invited Mr Abbas to Gaza, which he has not visited since Hamas's violent seizure of power there in 2007. Mr Haniya called for a "comprehensive dialogue" on unity.

But in his speech yesterday Mr Abbas had a very specific programme for ending the rift: appointment of a government of independent national figures who would be sworn in by him and would prepare for the presidential and parliamentary elections. Mr Abbas yesterday also said in the most explicit fashion yet that he would not run for the presidency again. "I said it repeatedly and I say it again. I will not nominate myself."

Hamas leaders welcomed Mr. Abbas's offer to visit Gaza. "This is good news for all of us as Palestinians," said Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Mr Haniya. In the West Bank, deputy parliament speaker Hassan Khreisheh, an independent, termed Mr Abbas's offer a "historic initiative".

"It is appreciated by me and the majority of people who want to end the division," he said.

Analysts said that, at least in part, both Mr Haniya and Mr Abbas are trying to demonstrate responsiveness to public calls to end the rift, which has weakened the Palestinian struggle for independence and played into Israeli hands, perpetuating the occupation.

On Tuesday, 25,000 people demonstrated for unity in Gaza City with a simultaneous demonstration of 8,000 in Ramallah. In both places, the crowds chanted "the people want an end to the division."