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Exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Friday denied that the Palestinian movement was running a “shadow government” in the Gaza Strip.
Meshaal spoke in Tunisian capital city Tunis only days after Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas threatened to break the unity government with Hamas after he charged that Hamas was not letting the government operate in Gaza.
“There is a national unity government; talk of a parallel government is totally against reality”, Meshaal said after his meeting with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.
He added that government ministries were “operating normally” in the Palestinian enclave even if the “government is absent from” Gaza, and urged the Palestinian cabinet to be present.
“We welcome the government of national unity to work in Gaza, to take charge of crossing points and assume all its responsibilities in line with what we agreed upon”, he said.
Back in April, Hamas had agreed to work with the Fatah movement and formed the unity government consisting of technocrats to run Gaza and work on long-delayed elections. The deal brought years of bitter rivalry between Fatah and Hamas to an end. The cabinet took office on June 2nd, immediately after the Hamas government running Gaza stepped down.
Last week, Abbas accused Hamas of running a shadow government in the Gaza Strip.
“We won’t accept a partnership with them if the situation continues like this in Gaza, where there is a shadow government… running the territory. The national consensus government cannot do anything on the ground”, Abbas said.
On Monday this week, Hamas responded by saying that Abbas was trying to sabotage their unity deal.
The spat between the two erupted after a permanent, open-ended ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip on August 26th, bringing the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas to an end – talks between them to consolidate the truce are expected to resume in Cairo later this month.