GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas handed over the house of late President Yasser Arafat, the founder of the Fatah movement, west of Gaza City, to the Yasser Arafat Foundation on the evening of Nov. 11. Al-Monitor was there when some Fatah members posed with an Israeli Uzi submachine gun that was among Arafat’s belongings.

Zakaria al-Agha, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and a representative of the Yasser Arafat Foundation’s board of trustees, said during the handover ceremony that Arafat’s house was important because of its national symbolism. He added, “Our hearts are open to our Hamas brothers to overcome the Palestinian people’s division.”

The attendees, including politicians and journalists, took photos of the house and of images of the young Arafat and of his travels. The house seemed new and tidy, although it had been deserted for eight years after Hamas seized it in June 2007 when it took over the Gaza Strip by force. Arafat died in 2004.

However, Hamas refuses to consider its acquisition of the house a form of seizure or confiscation. Hamas representative Sami Abu Zuhri told Al-Monitor on the sidelines of the house handover, “It was not a seizure. We were just keeping the house to fulfill the wishes of Suha Arafat, the late president’s wife. We have wanted to hand it over for years, but Mrs. Arafat asked for the procedure to be delayed until she sent us an official memo to hand it over to the Yasser Arafat Foundation.”