Samir al-Mashharawi, the right-hand man of Mohammed Dahlan, Fatah's former leader in the Gaza Strip, arrives in the coastal enclave next week. Dahlan’s supporters view Mashharawi’s arrival as the advent of his return to his roots within the framework of the new alliance forged between him and Hamas with Egypt’s mediation. Just a decade ago, Mashharawi, like Dahlan, was considered Hamas’ greatest enemy. During the 2007 uprising that brought Hamas to power, its armed wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets toward Mashharawi’s house in Gaza’s Rimal neighborhood. As far as Mashharawi is concerned, the attempt to wipe him out was an act of ingratitude on the part of the man who was to become the movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Years earlier, a wonderful friendship was forged between Mashharawi, who was a hardcore Fatah member, and Haniyeh. When Israel launched a campaign of targeted eliminations against the Hamas leadership and took out its heads — Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi — in 2004, Haniyeh found refuge in Mashharawi’s house. Haniyeh, at the time a personal aide to Rantisi, disguised himself as a woman and fled to Mashharawi’s house, evading the fearsome guns of the Israeli Apache helicopters.

Three years later, when the armed wing of Hamas tried to assassinate Mashharawi, Haniyeh did not say a word and did not condemn the armed men willing to take out any Fatah member close to Dahlan, even one to whom Haniyeh owed his life.

Much has been written about the surprising alliance formed in recent months between Hamas and its former archenemy. Dahlan, also known as Abu Fadi, is now considered the savior angel of Gaza’s residents and their Hamas leaders after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew his support from half his people (the residents of Gaza) in order to punish Hamas.