Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas continues his US-backed coup, as he is expected to unveil a new government. He has asked Salam Fayyad, the independent finance minister of the unity government, to swear in a new cabinet as prime minister. Abbas took it upon himself to disband the unity government, and said the new cabinet sworn in today will primarily consist of 10-12 independent technocrats.

Not surprisingly, now that the democratically elected Hamas government has been exiled to the Gaza Strip, the United States has said it will lift the direct ban on aid. A senior Fatah commander in the West Bank has also said that Hamas has become a “banned organization” and ordered all Hamas members to hand in their weapons. Fatah now claims that it is Hamas who carried out the coup, and that they will be excluded from the new US-backed government in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has refused to accept Abbas’ declaration that the unity government has been dissolved. He calls the replacement of the government illegal. Haniya also refuses to set up a separate Hamas-ruled state in Gaza, saying; “Gaza belongs to all the Palestinian people and not just Hamas. Separation is not on the agenda and never will be.” Unfortunately, Abbas does not feel the same way.

The security challenge was highlighted when the head of the Palestinian Authority police force, who is loyal to Abbas’s Fatah faction, banned officers in Gaza from cooperating with the rival Hamas movement.

“General Kamal al-Sheikh has ordered all police in the Gaza Strip to cease work and not to cooperate with the interior minister and the sacked government,” a statement released on Saturday said.

“All those who disobey these orders will have to assume their responsibilities before the law and will be considered as mutineers who refuse direct orders from their hierarchy.”

Despite the tensions, Hamas has expressed the desire to open dialogue and work with Abbas and Fatah. Khaled Meshaal, the exiled political leader of Hamas, said; “What is needed now is to deal with the Palestinian schism. Hamas is for Arab sponsorship of a dialogue in the Palestinian national interest. The lack of security drove the crisis toward explosion… We need to restructure the Palestinian security apparatus to be a national force chosen according to merit and not on a factional basis,” he said.

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