Palestinian hopes of achieving a genuine breakthrough in concluding reconciliation and political unity between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during recent talks went up in flames with another Fatah-Hamas dispute. These talks were expected to end division, form a unity government and issue a decree setting the date for general elections.

In Cairo, participants in the meeting failed to address the issue of reconciliation. The meetings, held under the auspices of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (GIS), aimed to bring Hamas and Fatah to the discussion of what has been agreed upon previously, waiting to adopt mechanisms for implementation.

The meetings of the follow-up committee, which includes Moussa Abu Marzouk from Hamas, Azzam al-Ahmad from Fatah, and Nader al-Aasar, a representative of the GIS — in addition to the participation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal in recent meetings — witnessed new differences over the PA presidential and parliamentary election date, which coincide with the PLO national council elections, and regarding a shift  towards a fully proportional representation, after a mixed system was agreed upon consisting of 75% proportional representation and 25% individual seats.

An official source, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that Abbas requested to limit the unity government’s term to three months, ending with the elections in the Palestinian territories. This request was rejected by Hamas, which demanded the term of the government to be at least six months, based on the 2009 Cairo Accord.