In an unprecedented step, Hamas has demanded its political rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to arrest the young men who burned an effigy of the Emir of Qatar in the city of Tulkarem in the West Bank. This has sparked a wave of severe criticism on the Palestinian streets because of the political rapprochement between the Islamic movement and Qatar.

In a press statement that was sent out to reporters via email, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas’ spokesman, said that “Hamas considers Abbas’ condemnation of the abusive act on the part of some Fatah-affiliated youth to the Qatari leadership not to be enough and does not relieve him from responsibility given the fact that he is the head of the Fatah movement. We condemn this irresponsible act and call upon Abbas to arrest the culprits in order to preserve our foreign relations. We consider this act to be the result of incitement on the part of some Fatah leadership to support certain Arab parties against others.”

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was the most prominent Arab leader to visit the Gaza Strip in December of last year, and was elatedly received by Hamas as he announced the start of Qatari reconstruction projects in Gaza, which amounted to more than $450 million.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Hamas’ spokesman in Gaza, Salah Bardawil, said that the [good] relations between Hamas and Qatar are the product of Qatar’s political and financial support for the Palestinian cause and the Gaza Strip.