Hamas accuses Palestinian government of failing Gaza

GAZA CITY — The Palestinian consensus government has failed to meet its commitment to rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip, former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh has said.

Speaking late on Monday shortly after a ministerial delegation from the West Bank arrived in Gaza, Haniyeh accused the government of failing "to keep its commitments, by not carrying out reconstruction, nor unifying institutions under the Palestinian Authority nor organising elections".

The national consensus government took office in June following a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Fateh movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ending seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Technocratic in nature, its mandate was to unify governance of the two territories and prepare for elections. It was later tasked with rebuilding Gaza after a deadly summer war with Israel, which claimed nearly 2,200 Palestinian lives.

A spate of bombings last month targeting the property of Fateh officials in Gaza prompted Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to cancel a scheduled visit.

Haniyeh accused the government of acting selectively in a manner that was "harmful" to Gaza and said he was "not optimistic" that the current visit would manage to get things "back on track".

"Unfortunately, the government has not managed to prove it is the government of the entire Palestinian people," said Haniyeh, the Gaza-based deputy head of Hamas’ politburo.

His remarks, broadcast on Hamas’ Al Aqsa television, were made several hours after eight ministers and more than 40 other government officials from Ramallah arrived to kick start the reconstruction of Gaza, which has yet to begin.

The massive task of rebuilding the territory, where more than 96,000 homes were damaged or destroyed leaving more than 100,000 people homeless, has hardly begun, with Palestinian officials accusing Israel of restricting the entry of crucial building supplies.

The unity government was tasked with managing the reconstruction but the process has been bogged down by infighting between Hamas and Fateh.

Diplomatic sources also say a UN-brokered mechanism agreed with Israel and the Palestinians which would facilitate the entry of construction supplies has taken longer than expected to get up and running.