Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's deputy, Khalil al-Hiyya, criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Aug. 30 for his refusal to reconcile with Hamas and remove another obstacle on the road to an arrangement with Israel.

In a speech in Gaza, Al-Hiyya said, “The only ones who insist on not removing the siege are Fatah and Abbas.” Al-Hiyya, who was a part of the Hamas delegation to the recent talks in Cairo, added that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah is working against the interests of the Palestinian people residing in Gaza. Later in his speech, he hinted that the Palestinian Authority is interested in leading Hamas to an armed conflict with Israel, because if no cease-fire is reached, Hamas’ struggle against the siege will intensify.

Sinwar said similar things a day earlier in a five-hour meeting with journalists in Gaza. In that conversation, he laid out Hamas’ capabilities if it is forced into an armed conflict with Israel and said that Abbas is the obstacle to an arrangement.

The two movement leaders are not wrong. Abbas has until now opposed the intra-Palestinian reconciliation despite the pressure on him to endorse it. In recent months all attempts to bring Fatah and Hamas closer, and thus enable a rehabilitation plan for the Gaza Strip, have failed. Fatah leaders have explained that Abbas insists on upholding the principle of “one weapon, one authority,” which means that Abbas insists on controlling the Gaza Strip, both on the civil administrative level and on the security one. His associates have explained that he is not interested in being a fig leaf for Hamas, on doing the hard work in the Gaza Strip and paying the political and diplomatic price for it, because he would quickly find himself trapped between Israel and Hamas.