Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – The Hamas' security forces Monday barred a senior Fatah official from traveling to the West Bank to attend a high-level meeting to back the Palestinian leadership's non-member state bid at the United Nation. The Fatah movement said that Hamas' security forces manning the Beit Hanoun crossing in northern Gaza Strip barred Amal Hamad, Deputy Secretary General of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, from leaving the enclave to attend the meeting of movement's decision-making body in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to present the UN General Assembly with a non-member state bid due to stalemate in the peace process with Israel since October 2010. The US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed after Israel refused to extend a 10- month moratorium over freezing settlement constructions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Fatah said in a press statement that “this Hamas' disgraceful behavior complicates the internal Palestinian relations, and contradicts the Palestinian people's determination in supporting the leadership's UN recognition bid." The movement called on Hamas' security forces to “stop imitating the Israeli occupation polices of barring Palestinian from traveling between West Bank and Gaza Strip, and also travelling abroad." The four-year-old split widened in 2007, when Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, routed forces loyal to Abbas and took over Gaza. Representatives of Hamas and Fatah movements held several meetings abroad to discuss the formation of a national unity government, the topics of security services, general and local elections and the restoration of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In May, Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo to end around five years of internal division. The split widened in 2007, when Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, routed forces loyal to Abbas and took over Gaza. Since then, representatives of the two movements held several meetings abroad but failed to resolve the obstacles blocking its implementation, particularly the formation of interim government, the obstacle of the new prime minister, the issues of passports and the political detainees.
