Israel’s attack on Gaza was expected to turn a page in the conflict that erupted recently between Fatah and Hamas, including the salary crisis, which almost wrecked the reconciliation between them.

But the current Israeli war on Gaza has fed the flames between Fatah and Hamas. At the height of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza early July 8, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas surprised the Palestinians by giving a speech at a peace conference organized by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In attendance were a large number of Israeli and international peace activists, journalists and economists.

Abbas’ participation in the conference came despite a boycott by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and businessman Munib al-Masri over the bloody situation in Gaza and out of respect for its people.

A senior Fatah official in Ramallah revealed to Al-Monitor that some Fatah leaders “asked Abbas not to participate in the Israeli conference because the people might interpret it as a lack of concern in the continued massacre in the Gaza Strip. When he insisted on participating, we asked him to talk about what is happening in Gaza and to ask the international figures participating in the conference to intervene with the Israeli government to stop the attack, but he didn’t do that.”