Riots broke out Thursday outside several banks across the Gaza Strip, reportedly after employees of Hamas were kept from withdrawing their salaries and in turn barred employees of the Palestinian Authority from entry.

The PA has been paying monthly salaries to nearly 70,000 public servants in Gaza despite the fact that the workers had not been allowed to serve in their positions since Hamas took over the Strip by force in 2007.

On its part, Hamas has employed 40,000 of its own civil servants to work in the PA employees’ stead.

Following the establishment of a Hamas-Fatah unity government earlier this week, Hamas’s employees were expected to begin receiving salaries from the PA itself, while the original PA employees were set to take up again their former posts. However, when the Hamas civil servants approached the banks in order to receive their salaries, they were turned away. Some Hamas employees then proceeded to block entrance to the banks in protest.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-blocks-pa-employees-from-entering-gaza-banks/

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The union of public sector employees in Gaza on Thursday blamed the newly formed Palestinian unity government for banking chaos which started Wednesday and continued into Thursday in the coastal enclave.

When Palestinian Authority government employees went to withdraw their monthly wages from banks on Wednesday, they were joined by government workers from the previous Hamas-affiliated government seeking their pay, too.

This resulted in clashes and closures as executives sought to avoid bank runs.

In a news conference, the union's speaker Muhammad Siyam accused the unity government of "discriminating between civil servants based in the West Bank and those based in Gaza."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=702508

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Isolated in the region and facing a major economic crisis in Gaza, Hamas ceded power to gain breathing space and recuperate, and will remain in the background politically, analysts said.

The Islamist movement will instead work at the grass roots level to build up military, financial and social strength while, under the guise of a Palestinian unity deal, it takes refuge under the wing of the internationally-recognized PLO.

Gaza's Hamas government stepped down on Monday after a new unity government took oath in Ramallah, the first fruits of a surprise April deal between the movement and the Western-backed PLO, which is dominated by the rival Fatah faction.

The resignation ends Hamas' seven-year tenure of political authority in the besieged Strip, an experience that ultimately weakened the movement.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=702275

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) new partner, Hamas, praised an overnight shooting attack against soldiers at a checkpoint in northern Samaria, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported.

The Gaza-based group lauded what it called “the shooting attack that took place at the Tapuach Junction in eastern Shechem that led to the death of Alaa Mahmoud Odeh and the wounding of a Zionist soldier,” Ma’ariv said.

Israeli troops shot and killed Odeh, 31, of the village of Awartaa when he pulled out a pistol and opened fire on them, near midnight.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/06/03/day-after-unity-deal-hamas-lauds-terrorist-shooting-at-israeli-checkpoint-audio/

Palestinian Authority security forces arrested 10 Hamas activists overnight Wednesday in Hebron, continuing a crackdown against the Islamist group ahead of a large demonstration planned in the city Thursday.

The arrests came despite the establishment earlier this week of a unity government between Hamas and Fatah, which controls the PA.

The men were stopped in their car and a search of the vehicle uncovered weapons that they were carrying, the Ma’an News Agency reported.

The arrests came ahead of a call by Hamas on Thursday for a general strike in Hebron to mark the annual Naksa Day, or “Day of the Setback,” on June 5, commemorating Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War. During the war Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.

Several of the detainees were former prisoners held by Israel, according to Internet sites affiliated with Hamas.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-activists-arrested-in-hebron-ahead-of-naksa-protest/

JERUSALEM — United States officials have been holding secret back-channel talks with Hamas over the last six months to discuss their role in the newly formed unity government, according to two senior diplomatic sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

The meetings were held between U.S. intermediaries and Hamas’ leadership, which lives outside the Gaza Strip in third-party countries ranging from Egypt to Qatar and Jordan. Topics included the ceasefire agreement with Israel and the recently formed unity government between Hamas and Fatah.

During the talks, Hamas gave assurances that allowed the U.S. to support the unity government, despite heavy pressure by the Israeli government for them to condemn it, the diplomatic officials — one American and one Palestinian — said. They said those assurances including a commitment to maintaining a ceasefire with Israel.

“Our administration needed to hear from them that this unity government would move toward democratic elections, and toward a more peaceful resolution with the entire region,” said one U.S. official familiar with the talks. He spoke on condition of anonymity, as the U.S, government’s official stance is that it has not, and will not, talk to Hamas until certain preconditions are met. “It was important to have that line of communication,” the U.S. official said.

State Department deputy spokesman Marie Harf denied the talks. “These assertions are completely untrue,” Harf told BuzzFeed. “There is no such back channel. Our position on Hamas has not changed.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/the-us-has-been-speaking-to-hamas-through-backchannels-for-o

That honeymoon didn’t last long. Just days after they formed a unity government, fissures have emerged between Hamas and Fatah that show how long and grueling the road to reconciliation will be.

The famous cliché “the devil is in the details” has turned out to be as relevant as ever for implementing the Palestinian unity agreement.

-snip-

The second crisis, also just as expected, has to do with Hamas’s political and military activities in the West Bank. Over the past few days, Hamas activists in Hebron have tried to organize mass rallies for Naksa Day, marking the defeat suffered during the 1967 Six-Day War.

But the PA security forces took the gatherings as a challenge. According to Hamas reports, some of its members were arrested in Hebron: In the last two days alone, five activists were arrested and three more detained for questioning. One of the detainees, according to the report, was released from the General Intelligence Service’s prison three days ago, and a day later was arrested by the Preventive Security Force.

In the end, the Hebron demonstrations did not take place.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas security forces arrested a key Fatah operative who’d returned to the Strip through the Rafah crossing.

These incidents create the first small but meaningful cracks in Palestinian unity, and leave question marks about whether the reconciliation agreement can last.

And on the horizon hovers the biggest crisis of all — the presidential and parliamentary elections, the prime purpose for which the national unity government was established. Their date has yet to be set, but it is already clear that Israel will not allow elections in East Jerusalem with Hamas participation.

When this becomes overt, the two organizations are expected to oppose holding elections at all, leaving this government’s future even more uncertain.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-fatah-hamas-honeymoon-is-already-over/

A member of the politburo of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has accused the recently-formed Palestinian unity government of violating the terms of an April reconciliation agreement between his group and rival faction Fatah.

"The government acted in error regarding those who fall under its mandate," said Hamas' Khalil al-Hayeh.

"We never expected ordinary people's livelihoods to be the first stumbling block on the road towards [Palestinian national] reconciliation," al-Hayeh said at a Monday press conference in Gaza City.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which rules the occupied West Bank, signed a reconciliation deal in late April in hopes of ending years of division.

The deal called for the formation of unity government of technocrats to run Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank until legislative polls are held within six months.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/11988-hamas-says-government-violated-reconciliation-terms

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Banks in the Gaza Strip remained closed on Monday as a crisis which began last week over salaries continues to challenge the newly formed unity government.

The crisis began on Wednesday as thousands of civil servants rushed to ATM machines to receive their salaries.

Hamas employees of the newly formed government were angered to find out they had not been paid, with Hamas-affiliated police officers preventing other PA employees from collecting their wages.

On Monday, hundreds of PA employees gathered near the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City to protest against not being unable to withdraw their salaries.

Gaza police have deployed around banks and ATM machines to prevent non-Hamas affiliated employees from retrieving their salaries until a solution is worked out.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=703365