On 11 November, a senior official from the West Bank-based Fatah movement, Ahmed Helles, called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop its discrimination against Gaza and to pay the families of Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces.

“Gaza has paid all the costs and has never given up its national project. It has never given up its role and has not been late in our people’s battles. It represents the pride of the Palestinian people. No one has the right to neglect Gaza or to let the family of a single martyr is left searching for their rights,” Helles said during a commemoration for the passing of Yasser Arafat in Gaza.

Helles highlighted that PA President Mahmoud Abbas recently decided to deliver justice for the people of Gaza, including workers and the deceased; however, the decision has yet to be implemented.

In late October, senior officials from the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas resistance movements spoke about the need to reinforce unity and escalate military confrontation against the Israeli army.

Both sides noted that “the liberation of Palestinian lands at this stage requires efforts to unify resistance forces, escalate the confrontation with the occupying forces, and force the regime to retreat from all Palestinian soil,” Palestine Today reported.

Despite recent reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, hostilities between the parties have been simmering since 2007, following Hamas’s consolidation of power in the Gaza Strip. Previous negotiations have repeatedly failed due to their differences in finding a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

On 24 August, Hamas condemned the PA for releasing the culprits who attempted to assassinate Nasser al-Shaer, a Hamas leader and former deputy prime minister.

Fatah’s security coordination with Israeli forces – all while Palestinians are battered by their occupiers on a daily basis – has severely eroded the legitimacy of the Fatah-controlled PA.

“In the eyes of many Palestinians, the PA’s role has been limited to issuing traffic tickets, carrying out some arrests [of dissidents], and collecting taxes,” Fatah official Jamal Tirawi said during an interview with Israeli media on 13 August.

Earlier in the year, an Israeli official revealed that PA forces carried out raids in the West Bank city of Jenin at the direct request of the Israeli military.