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26.04.2026
The Headline
In practice, the government in Gaza is shared by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Both sides on honeymoon, controlling the Gaza government
The municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza express a political dialogue between the parties with administrative primacy for the PA and Fatah
War crimes by Jews in the West Bank, along with Turkey's involvement between the Palestinian factions, have promoted the honeymoon
It is possible that the war crimes committed by Jews in the West Bank, in harming herds, fruit orchards, and free movement on the roads, are what will ultimately bring peace between the Palestinian factions. Turkey is convincing the Palestinians to form a single political structure, and to use American support for a new order in Gaza and the Middle East to this end, and to restrain the reactions against Jewish rioters, to increase world support. The actions of the Jewish rioters emphasize the Palestinian political change and even give it validity. Turkey and the Palestinians are thereby turning the IDF's victories in the Gaza Strip into an Israeli political defeat in the entire Palestinian arena, a defeat Which also affects the other sectors in which Turkey is also involved. See our report here on the support that Turkey provides to Hezbollah, support that enabled its rearmament. See our report on Turkey preventing the Kurdish invasion of Iran and the overthrow of the regime (see today again in the diary); As the new Palestinian order strengthens, Hamas may be able to maintain limited military power through the new Palestinian police in Gaza.
By Mati Cohen
Municipal elections are currently being held in Deir el-Balah in Gaza and in many places in the West Bank, which for the first time are being led by coordination between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas is not present in the elections as a military movement, but its representatives, who declare in advance that they are not part of the military organization, through a Palestinian Authority form that they must sign, can run and win. However, the political reality in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip requires Hamas to accept that the Palestinian Authority will have administrative precedence in the new order, but Hamas does not accept it as a political order, and therefore the coordination; any coordination between the two sides, Hamas and the Authority, requires prior agreement. The political agreement is made with the Palestinian government in Gaza as the intermediary, and it conveys the positions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, until agreements are reached. It is a complex structure, but for now it is working.
Hamas will agree to disarm, but it will have two main conditions for this: 1. To maintain its governmental presence as achieved, as we noted above, and as we have previously reported, with the help of Turkish pressure on the US 2. To retain personal weapons, probably through the new Palestinian police in Gaza. These conditions are in addition to the organization's political conditions.
These achievements will allow Hamas to continue to accumulate political power, and in the future to continue its attempts to take control of the PLO. In our assessment, Turkey and Hamas hold the same secret position on this matter, according to which control of the PLO should ultimately pass to Hamas. In the past, Hamas' alliance with Barghouti, which was intended for a joint takeover by Hamas and Fatah, was practical; Now that it is clear that Israel will not release Barghouti unless the US demands it in the name of its friendship with Turkey, the chances of this are currently lower. But in our assessment, the US will also give in to a Turkish demand to release Barghouti in the end, and such a demand could come as early as during the current negotiations in Gaza.
Hamas candidates in the current elections gave up major cities in the West Bank where their chances were low following the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, an example of which is Ramallah, where no one except a Fatah representative presented his candidacy.
In light of the intensive activity of Turkey and the Palestinian factions in Gaza, of Turkey and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and of Turkey and Iran, including preventing the Kurdish attack on the Iranian regime under Turkish pressure, it was expected that Israel would respond, but it cannot respond out of the obligation imposed on it by the American president to act only with his consent.