The Gaza Strip's outstanding priorities

In the meeting that brought together Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian in Beirut with the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad on 8/31/2023, the leadership of the two factions stressed “not to back down from resistance operations in the West Bank, as a priority at this stage.”

Therefore, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have priorities, which are to continue the resistance activity, with Iranian support, in confronting the colonial forces on the territory of the Palestinian West Bank, which is the case with the rules of the Fatah militant movement and their options.

But the deep question they ignored and evaded is: What are the priorities for the Gaza Strip?? What is the program of the Hamas movement in managing the Gaza Strip, which it has governed alone since the “military decision” that it implemented in June 2007, and which it still adheres to its results and imposed on the people of Gaza until now??

The Hamas movement is working to develop its military capabilities to confront the colony’s aggressions and attacks. This is a correct choice, perhaps it will be able to reach the equation of mutual deterrence that the Lebanese Hezbollah achieved between itself and the Israeli colony’s forces.

But what is the priority of the people of Gaza who suffered woe, hunger and oppression, after they made the colony and its forces suffer what they did and forced Sharon to leave after dismantling the army bases and removing the settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and they paid the price for their enemy’s campaigns and repeated attacks since the end of 2008, passing through all the bloody years that They have passed, and the last of them will not be the aggression of August 2022, and the aggression of May 2023. What are the necessary priorities for them to restore their dignity??

The priority required of the Hamas movement is to provide dignity and partnership to the people of the Gaza Strip in managing their institutions, and their right to choose through the ballot boxes, as long as national unity is no longer a realistic demand, no matter how necessary it may seem to talk about it, because the agreements, statements, meetings, and mediations have not yielded any results to end the division. The last of which was the Palestinian El Alamein meeting on 7/30/2023, which provided the president, who lost his mandate, with the “political legitimacy” that he obtained with the presence of all the factions and their approval of his position, stature, and presidency, and provided the Hamas movement with recognition of its partnership, existence, and necessity.

Hamas's priority is to bear the responsibility of holding municipal elections, professional and labor unions, and university student councils in the Gaza Strip, similar to what the Fatah movement is doing in the West Bank.

The Hamas movement’s sole management of the Gaza Strip is a recorded political shame, and its agreements with the colony through the “security truce” are no less bad than the “security coordination” agreements between Ramallah and Tel Aviv. The colony, through its bilateral agreements with Ramallah alone, and with Gaza alone, Another party, aiming to achieve two goals:

1- Providing security. 2- Continuing the Palestinian division and nourishing it with the financial and service facilities it grants, and ensuring the continued exclusivity of the Hamas movement in managing the Gaza Strip, and that this exclusivity and Hamas dominance over the people of the Strip remain??