Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh blasted the Palestinian unity government for failing to meet the needs of Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh slammed the Palestinian terrorist group’s expired unity government with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah political party for failing to meet the needs of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

In early December, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri announced that the six-month unity deal had expired, and called for new negotiations between the Palestinian factions. Speaking on Monday after a delegation from the West Bank arrived in Gaza to discuss Palestinian unity, Haniyeh said the defunct pact had failed “to keep its commitments, by not carrying out reconstruction [of Gaza], nor unifying institutions under the Palestinian Authority nor organizing elections,” AFP reported.

Haniyeh said the unity government was “harmful” to Gaza’s population and that he was “not optimistic” that the arrangement could get back on track.

Despite signing the deal for a unity government last spring, Hamas and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) have continued open hostilities. Over the summer it was revealed that Hamas plotted to assassinate PA President Mahmoud Abbas and overthrow the PA government in the West Bank. More recently, Fatah accused Hamas of launching a series of bomb attacks on Gaza-based Fatah members early November.