GAZA ‘Positive’ signal: Fatah and Hamas leaders meet in Algeria

After years of enmity, Abu Mazen and Ismail Haniyeh shook hands in Algeria, where they attended celebrations for the 60th anniversary of independence. Catholic leader: a kind of “protocol” gesture, but one that can guarantee “progress”. Gaza parish priest: a “sign” for the entire Palestinian people and the “search for an agreement”.

Gaza () – A meeting, which may be “facade”, as some analysts and experts point out, but which could unblock a situation that has been stagnant for too long and relaunch the Palestinian issue on the international agenda thanks to greater internal unit. The parish priest of the Sagrada Familia, Father Gabriel Romanelli, an Argentine priest of the Incarnate Word, considers that the face-to-face meeting between the leaders of Al Fatah and Hamas in Algeria is “something positive”, because “already the fact that they meet and talk publicly” constitutes “a signal to all the people” of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as “in relation to Israel.” More cautious Bernard Sabella, former Fatah representative and executive secretary of the Council of Churches’ Palestinian refugee service of the Middle East, for whom “the reality of the facts makes this meeting” no more than a kind of “protocol gesture”. However, it is necessary to evaluate the possible implications and see if it can favor “significant advances” in terms of dialogue and collaboration.

The news and the photos about it only began to circulate yesterday afternoon, but the meeting of the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Abu Mazen with a delegation from Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, headed by the head of the office political Ismail Haniyeh, took place on July 5. After more than five years – the last time was in 2016 – the face to face took place in Algeria on the sidelines of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the independence of the North African country.

A note from the Algerian presidency, published on the institutional social page, reported that the head of state Abdelmadjid Tebboune met “in the same room” with the delegations of the ANP and Hamas. The statement speaks of a meeting between “Palestinian brothers” that took place after years in which both parties “did not sit together at the same table.” For a long time there has been a total fracture between them despite the multiple problems that afflict the Palestinian population in the West Bank and in the Strip, a kind of open-air prison.

Videos and photos, which have received wide media coverage in the North African country, show President Tebboune standing between Abu Mazen and Haniyeh, who then shake hands in front of the cameras. Months ago, the Algerian presidency itself had anticipated the possibility of a meeting between the parties, for which Algeria was working intensely in order to find a unity of purpose.

The meeting was described by many as “historic”, although its content is unknown and neither party wanted to make official statements. However, the face-to-face meeting is one more confirmation of Algeria’s attempt to mediate between the factions and relaunch the diplomatic effort to find a solution to the Palestinian cause, which has currently disappeared from the international agenda. Haniya and Abbas last met in October 2016 in Doha, the Qatari capital, in the latest and greatest effort to reconcile the two sides. The Palestinian Authority delegation included representatives of the secret services and the judiciary.

“The fact that they are seen together and the meeting is made public – continues the priest of Gaza – is a manifestation of unity and the search for an agreement, at least on some points”. And it can guarantee greater strength, he concludes, in relations with Israel “where already this year we have seen, something that is very positive, the granting of thousands of work permits to the inhabitants of the Strip. Also, there were no major clashes on the anniversary of the war in May 2021 and that is also an encouraging sign.”