Hamas: Reconstruction is the real test for reconciliation

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan has said that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, following Israel’s latest military aggression, will be a “real test” for the “seriousness” of the Palestinian reconciliation government, Palestine’s Al-Resalah newspaper reported on Monday.

“Hamas is not going to spare any effort to support the reconstruction mission,” the newspaper quoted Hamdan as saying, in addition calling upon all the Palestinian factions to support it. “The real goal of the reconciliation is to serve the Palestinian people and their cause,” he added.

International donors, at a conference held in Cairo on Sunday, pledged a sum of $5.4 billion towards the reconstruction efforts in Gaza. This sum exceeds the $4 billion that was initially requested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for reconstructing the Strip.

Hamdan also said that the cost of reconstruction is the price the international community must pay as a result of its silence towards Israel’s “criminal and hostile acts against the Palestinians”.

He further explained: “If the world had taken a decisive decision towards the aggression when it first started, it would not have found itself obliged to pay for the reconstruction.”

At the same time, Hamdan denied any link between the efforts to reconstruct the Strip and the so-called peace process, which is directly linked to Israeli security. He stressed that he considers the latter standing beside the Israeli occupation rather than confronting it.

Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi said during the donor’s conference that the reconstruction of Gaza should take place on condition of maintaining the ceasefire and reactivating the PA’s control over the besieged enclave, which means a return to security cooperation in Gaza with Israel.