The Gaza Strip has always been full of surprises, and it knows how to set up a sting. As its residents are proud to say, the element of surprise is an integral part of their DNA. And so, another surprising event, possibly of historic proportions, took place in Gaza late last week. Just one month after Operation “Pillar of Defense” and as a direct consequence of the pervasive feeling that they defeated Israel, Hamas allowed Fatah to hold a rally in Gaza with hundreds of thousands of supporters.

So what was the sting? We’ll get to that in a bit.

Back in June 2007, Hamas launched a coup in the Gaza Strip. Upon seizing power, they sent the entire Fatah leadership packing with their tails between their legs. Now, for the first time since the coup, a quarter of a million people from across the Gaza Strip could gather to mark the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement.

By the way, the number 48 has particular significance for the Palestinians, just as it has for us. It seems as if this event to mark 48 years of Fatah was a moment in which old glories were restored or, to be more precise, a time for the Palestinian people’s national liberation movement to recover its dignity after such a devastating humiliation. And humiliation is not a reference to the Nakba either. Actually, it refers to the expulsion of the Fatah leadership from Gaza by Hamas.