Several Fatah leaders loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have been prevented from traveling to the West Bank to attend meetings recently. Hamas' security forces in the Gaza Strip prevented the deputy secretary of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, Fayez Abu Eita, from traveling to the West Bank on July 11 through the Beit Hanoun/Erez checkpoint to attend a Fatah meeting. No justification was given.

On June 30, Hamas security prevented Fatah Central Committee member Ahmad Halas from crossing the checkpoint. Member of the PLO’s Executive Committee and head of its Department of Refugee Affairs, Zakaria al-Agha, was turned back twice, on May 19 and 30.

Abu Eita told Al-Monitor that he went to the Beit Hanoun checkpoint on July 11, but was shocked to find out that he would not be allowed to go to the West Bank. “The Hamas security forces at the checkpoint prevented me from passing without giving any justification. This completely violates Palestinian laws,” he said.

A Fatah official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Hamas political leadership had decided to prevent Fatah leaders from going to the West Bank. He attributed the move to the ongoing bickering between the two movements, explaining, “Hamas wants to tighten the noose on the Fatah leadership in the Gaza Strip by continuing to prevent Fatah leaders from traveling to the West Bank, as it did with Halas and Abu Eita. This comes in light of the escalation between the two movements after Hamas rejected Fatah’s request to end the administrative committee that Hamas formed in March in the Gaza Strip.”