Two informed Palestinian sources said Azzam Al-Ahmad, the secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, held talks in Cairo with faction leaders including Hamas and Islamic Jihad about the two movements joining the PLO.
The first source, a member of the PLO’s delegation in Cairo, told Al Manassa that a positive atmosphere prevailed during those contacts, noting that “since assuming the post of secretary-general of the Executive Committee, Azzam Al-Ahmad has aimed to break the stalemate, strengthen the PLO, and end internal disputes, as it is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians.”
Hamas rejects joining the PLO in its current form for structural, ideological and political reasons, most notably its refusal to recognize the Oslo Accords and its insistence on armed resistance, compared with the PLO’s negotiating approach.
The PLO source, who asked not to be named, said contacts are underway between Al-Ahmad and the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to arrange a meeting in Cairo in the near term.
According to the PLO’s delegation member, the outreach to Hamas and Islamic Jihad is being driven directly by Al-Ahmad, at a time when Abbas holds a hardline position on the two movements joining the PLO.
A Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader told Al Manassa that Al-Ahmad spent a week in Cairo and met representatives of the PFLP led by deputy secretary-general Jamil Mazhar, and the Democratic Front (DFLP) led by Fahd Suleiman.
Al-Ahmad discussed with the PFLP delegation demands that had led the group to stop attending Executive Committee meetings and to suspend its membership without an official decision, according to the second source, who also asked not to be named.
The PFLP source said the meeting with the PLO secretary-general, who was elected in May to replace Hussein Al-Sheikh after Al-Sheikh was chosen as vice president of the Palestinian Authority, was “positive” and made significant progress toward the PFLP resuming participation in PLO meetings.
The PFLP source said one remaining obstacle concerns financial allocations to the PFLP, adding that factions must confront recent Israeli decisions to expand the scope of Jerusalem and the Israeli government’s approval of a draft decision to begin registering large swaths of West Bank land as Israeli public property, while activating popular resistance.
Discussions between Al-Ahmad and the PLO delegation, which included Rawhi Fattouh, as well as the leadership of the PFLP and the DFLP, also addressed forming a new national council as part of broader moves to reform the PLO, the second source said.
A deep-rooted rift
On Jan. 25, 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in its first participation in a vote, ending roughly a decade of Fatah’s dominance. The previous legislature had been elected in 1996, two years after the Palestinian Authority was created.
On March 28, 2006, a government led by Ismail Haniyeh took office, assigning key posts to the movement’s leaders. Israel and the United States refused to recognize the government and maintained relations with the Palestinian Authority president.
Deadly clashes broke out between Fatah and Hamas supporters in Gaza in January and February 2007, then again in May. On June 14, 2007, Abbas dismissed Prime Minister Haniyeh after a week of armed clashes between the two movements and declared a state of emergency in Gaza.
The next day, Hamas overpowered Fatah-aligned forces in Gaza, which Abbas described as a “military coup.” Hamas expelled Fatah members from the Strip and took sole control. In response, Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza. About 100 people were killed in the confrontations.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, followed by an Israeli assault on Gaza that continues to this day.
As for the PFLP, it suspended its membership in the PLO indefinitely in September 2010, citing what it described at the time as “violations in the organization’s work” and unilateral decision-making on “the Palestinian people’s fateful decisions.”
Islamic Jihad takes a critical, oppositional view of PLO policies, calling for rebuilding it on democratic and resistance-based foundations and arguing that national unity should rest on armed resistance, not security coordination or negotiations.
The DFLP holds a strategic position that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative, but it criticizes “unilateral decision-making” and calls for broader factional participation. It has previously withdrawn from some Central Council sessions to pressure for reforms and implementation of national decisions.
