Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said tensions between Hamas and the PA are hindering Gaza reconstruction efforts. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Discord between the Palestinian terror group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is hindering efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said.

“The internal differences and the absence of cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are behind the delay in reconstructing the Gaza Strip,” Elaraby told the U.K.-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.

Last October, following the summer war between Israel and Hamas, international donors pledged $5.4 billion in aid to reconstruct Gaza during a conference in Cairo. Elaraby said that he is working with donor countries to help facilitate reconstruction efforts through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

Elaraby also condemned Egypt for recently designating Hamas’s “military wing,” the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.

Last year, Hamas and Fatah (the political party that controls the PA) signed an agreement to form a unity government. But the two sides have continued open hostilities, and Hamas has said the unity deal is dead.