Palestinian Officials Accuse Hamas of Obstructing Elections

People hold a candlelight vigil for Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli jail. (EPA)
People hold a candlelight vigil for Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli jail. (EPA)
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Palestinian Officials Accuse Hamas of Obstructing Elections

People hold a candlelight vigil for Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli jail. (EPA)
People hold a candlelight vigil for Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli jail. (EPA)

The Hamas movement seems to have an internal problem that is preventing it from completing the internal reconciliation process, said a Palestinian official.

Member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee Saleh Raafat confirmed that the movement, which runs the coastal Gaza Strip, has not yet officially replied to a proposal to hold general elections throughout Palestinian territories.

He hoped that Hamas would agree to holding the polls so that President Mahmoud Abbas would issue a decree setting the date for the elections in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“Hamas has new demands on the reconciliation issue, elections and employees, which the government has been working on equally between the West Bank and Gaza,” he was quoted as saying by the official news agency (WAFA).

“It is obvious that Hamas has a problem with the reconciliation and the elections,” he continued.

Raafat’s remarks explain why Abbas has delayed his presidential decree even though both Fatah and Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions announced their agreement to hold the elections.

Fatah and Hamas had agreed in Istanbul in September to first hold the general elections, then presidential polls, followed by the election of the PLO national council. All elections are supposed to be held within six months.

Fatah central committee member Rawhi Fattouh said the members have unanimously agreed on the outcomes of the Istanbul meeting and are awaiting the approval of the Hamas politburo.

All of the outstanding issues will be resolved after the elections, he stressed, noting that the delay does not serve the interest of any party.

He speculated that some official in Gaza were opposed to the reconciliation, hinting that the elections may be obstructed for personal gain.

The last Palestinian general elections were held in 2006.



UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)

The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led fighters loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

"The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations has called the GHF aid model "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israeli army by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Program said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities".