Hamas renews ‘revolt’ call against Palestinian Authority

GAZA CITY — Deputies of the Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza on Wednesday renewed calls for a "revolt" against the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority over its sweeping arrests of anti-Israeli fighters.

The deputies, in an act of defiance, held a meeting in the parliament building in Gaza City that has not convened officially since 2007 when Hamas expelled PA security forces after a week of deadly clashes.

They called for "an uprising and a revolt against the political arrests" carried out by the PA in the West Bank and for Palestinian factions to adopt "a firm stand against the Authority's crimes against the resistance and its members".

The MPs condemned the PA's security cooperation with Israel under the 1993 Oslo accords as amounting to "high treason" that served "Zionist security" interests.

On July 7, Hamas accused the PA of having arrested "more than 200" of its members in the West Bank, in a sweep that MP Khalil al-Haya charged was aimed solely at "assisting the occupier" against anti-Israeli fighters.

A Palestinian unity agreement signed in April 2014 sought to end years of bad blood between Hamas and Fateh, the party of PA chief and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

A unity government of technocrats was formed as a result, approved by both sides.

But it has been ineffective and essentially barred from operating in Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge of the impoverished coastal enclave which is under a strict Israeli blockade.