Hamas leaders arrive in Cairo to resume efforts, mediated by Egypt, aimed at addressing numerous issues currently deadlocked on top of which is the elusive Palestinian reconciliation, Dina Ezzat and Khaled Amayreh report A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo Tuesday for talks with Egyptian officials to resume truce negotiations frozen by the movement last week as well as discuss a prisoner swap deal involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit held captive since 2006. Hamas hopes to exchange Shalit for a number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. There are over 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. The Hamas delegation, which includes leaders from both the Gaza Strip and the Diaspora, will also ask the Egyptian leadership to step up efforts to bring about Palestinian national reconciliation between Fatah -- which Egypt leans towards in support -- and Hamas. Rafah is also high on the agenda with some Hamas leaders privately criticising Egyptian reluctance to reopen the border crossing, saying that keeping it closed is causing unwarranted distress for desperate Gazans. Hamas leaders also take issue with Egypt's refusal to release Hamas members held by authorities in Egypt -- some for years. Egyptian officials acknowledge that tension has marred contacts with Hamas. Egyptian officials argue that Egypt can't unilaterally reopen the Rafah crossing given that such a step would go beyond an outstanding international agreement regulating Palestinian movement in both directions across the Egypt- Gaza border. Refuting this argument, Hamas believes the agreement was unfair -- since it allowed Israel to have the final say in an exclusively Egyptian-Palestinian matter -- and that it has expired anyway. According to sources close to Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-dominated Gaza government, the Hamas delegation will also brief Egyptian officials on as many as 50 Israeli violations of the fragile Hamas-Israel truce struck but a month ago. Egyptian officials speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly say that Cairo has become impatient with the "inability of Hamas to show necessary determination to complete" the prisoners swap deal. The officials add that Egypt is "offended" by the insistence of Hamas to include the European Union in the deal, almost as a co-sponsor. This said, Cairo appears determined to press ahead with attempts to consolidate the truce and eventually expand it to include the West Bank. "Hamas wants this [expansion] within weeks, but it looks like it is going to take a few more months," commented one official. In parallel, Egypt is also maintaining what its officials qualify as a "reasonable pace" in handling the prisoners swap deal. "Last month we were more optimistic, but we are not pessimistic now," an informed official said. Ever since the conclusion of the truce deal four weeks ago, Israel kept border crossings with Gaza partially closed, allegedly in response to rockets fired on Israel from inside the Gaza Strip. However, there are indications that elements affiliated with Fatah, and that are directly answerable to Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence officials in the West Bank, are responsible for the firings. PA leaders have publicly given their general support for the truce in Gaza. However, some elements within the Fatah leadership consider the truce as benefiting Hamas and disadvantaging Fatah in their internal power struggle. This week, the Israeli occupation army raided, vandalised and ransacked schools, charities, an important medical centre and a large department store in Nablus, alleging that these targets were affiliated with "religious" individuals close to Hamas. Israel said the rampage was aimed at strengthening PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Although Fatah condemned the Israeli aggressions, Abbas has remained reticent to speak out. Hamas, while asserting its commitment to the ceasefire with Israel, has condemned the "criminal and Nazi-like ransacking of Palestinian interests in Nablus and other parts of the West Bank." The perceived collusion between the PA and Israel against Hamas, which Fatah leaders vehemently deny, comes as efforts to reconcile the two camps have suffered a series of setbacks. In the West Bank, Fatah-affiliated security agencies have arrested scores of Hamas sympathisers, including the elected mayor of Al-Sammou, a small town near Hebron. The general atmosphere of mutual mistrust this week culminated with Abbas's refusal to meet with Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief of Hamas. Abbas, who held talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, has reportedly been offended by a strongly worded letter sent to him by Meshaal via Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa. Hamas interpreted Abbas's refusal to meet with its chief as further proof that Abbas "is answerable first" to the US, which opposes rapprochement between the two Palestinian political factions. Fatah leaders deny that Abbas is at the Bush administration's beck and call. "It is unfair that whenever the brothers in Hamas don't like a certain statement or conduct on our part, they start calling us traitors and agents of America," said Rafiq Al-Natsheh, a former Fatah cabinet minister. More than a month ago, Abbas called for national reconciliation dialogue -- inclusive of Hamas -- that Cairo was going to host. In fact, last week Egyptian officials said the dialogue would be held "soon". Now Cairo officials are saying, "it is around the corner." "The factors necessary to launch the dialogue are there. Both Fatah and Hamas are interested in ending the national split that they are both finding difficult to handle," commented an Egyptian diplomatic source. He added that Israel and the US are now less reluctant about this dialogue than they were a few weeks ago, especially in view of the negative impact of the split on progress in Palestinian- Israeli negotiations. "Today, the US is especially aware of the need for President Abbas to secure some victory that he can capitalise on," said one source; all the more so if he is to run for the Palestinian presidency again in elections in the near future. Palestinian columnist Hani Al-Masri believes that both Hamas and Fatah -- but especially Fatah -- are reluctant to make the necessary efforts to reach reconciliation at this time. Al-Masri told Al-Ahram Weekly that Abbas wants to exhaust all possibilities for reaching a broad agreement with Israel before the end of President Bush's term in office. Al-Masri said Hamas, too, would like to wait until its estimated 45 lawmakers, now held in Israeli jails as political hostages, are released. "If they are freed, Hamas then would have the parliamentary majority to sack the Ramallah-based Fayyad government, and Abbas would have little manoeuvrability," Al-Masri said. (see pp. 3&7)
