Palestine Civil Affairs Authority to Pull Staff From Egypt-Gaza Crossing

GAZA (Sputnik) - The Palestinian movement Fatah said in a statement it had decided to cancel the celebration of the 54th anniversary of the Palestinian revolution in Gaza and condemned Hamas for arresting its members.

"The Fatah movement in southern provinces has decided, in the interests of our people, to cancel the celebration of the 54th anniversary of the Palestinian revolution in the city of Gaza, planned for Monday, 7 January", the statement, obtained by Sputnik, read.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority said in a statement that it had decided to withdraw its officers from a key crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt accusing Hamas of undermining their work.

"As a result of continued arrests and harassment by Hamas against our personnel as well as attempts to undermine their work, we have decided that, starting from tomorrow morning [Monday], we will withdraw the entire staff of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), working at the Rafah crossing point", the statement read

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Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Qanoua said, on his part, that the decision was part of a plan to divide Gaza under the "deal of the century", a Middle East settlement plan, that the United States has been working on since Donald Trump has assumed the presidency.

Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization in a number of countries, including the United States and Israel, gained control of the Gaza Strip after a short war with Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the PNA president, in 2007.

In 2017, they agreed to govern the Gaza enclave and the West Bank together but missed the December 2017 deadline to form a functioning cabinet over differences.