High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini has said it is "high time" for Palestinian factions to rally, with Hamas making a step towards Fatah on Sunday 17 September.
"It is high time that all Palestinian factions finally make a genuine good-faith effort to end their divisions", she told a meeting of the Palestinian donors group (Ad hoc liaison committee – AHLC) in New York. "This is a collective responsibility: to put the needs of the people first, and let a single, legitimate and democratic Palestinian Authority assume governance over the West Bank and Gaza", she added.
Like the whole AHLC, Mogherini therefore hailed the ongoing efforts under the auspices of Egypt. This is a "step in the right direction and it is an opportunity that everybody must seize", she said. After the negotiations in Cairo between Fatah and Hamas, Hamas announced on 17 September that it intended to dissolve the 'administrative committee' that was established in March to govern Gaza – a committee criticised by Fatah. It also announced that it intended to organise general elections and to engage in negotiations to reconcile with Fatah. However, none of the agreements signed between the two factions over the last ten years has been implemented.
Mogherini stated that the priority should be to take some "visible, concrete" steps to improve the situation of the people in the Gaza Strip, especially as regards electricity supply. The Israeli government decided last June to reduce electricity supply in the Gaza Strip because the Palestinian Authority reduced the payments it makes to Israel for the supply of electricity to Gaza, under the authority of Hamas. Mogherini highlighted a catastrophic situation in Gaza – "a man-made disaster", which is "the result of politics, or rather the lack of good politics", she said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)