Over five months after last summer’s Gaza conflict ended, reconstruction of the territory has effectively ground to a halt, with the UN-designed postwar framework failing to move beyond its first phase. While recent statements by some international officials have put the onus on the donor community for failing to deliver on pledges, the reality is that continued divisions between Hamas and Fatah are the primary obstacle. According to the deal reached at war’s end, the prerequisite for any wide-ranging reconstruction was the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority returning to Gaza. The PA has shown no inclination to make good on its commitments, however, and Hamas has yet to relinquish real authority over the territory. With the two factions at a stalemate (see “Gaza’s Explosion Waiting to Happen,” Politico) and the dire economic conditions that led to the war still in place, many believe that it is only a matter of time before another explosion erupts in Gaza.

THE BEST LAID PLANS

Last summer’s war ended in a tenuous ceasefire brokered by Cairo, which called for the PA to station its security forces at the border crossings with Israel (Kerem Shalom and Erez) and Egypt (Rafah), and to oversee the rationalization of Gaza’s divided government ministries. These provisions were built on the April 2014 Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement (see “Palestinian Reconciliation: Devil in the Details?”, PolicyWatch 2258), to which both factions still pledged public fealty. Reconciliation was in fact a Hamas capitulation, meant to surrender at least nominal authority in Gaza to a Fatah-dominated “national consensus” government in return for much needed economic relief (see “The Israeli Army Knew Gaza Was a ‘Ticking Bomb’ Before War Broke Out,” New Republic). Opening the crossings under the PA security forces while allowing at least some Hamas-affiliated civil servants to remain employed was intended as a first step in this regard (see “Using Gaza’s Border Crossings to Cement a Ceasefire,” PolicyWatch 2300). For its part, Israel was expected to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials into a presumably PA-administered Gaza.

Last September, the UN created the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) to ease the longstanding blockade around the enclave while allaying Israeli concerns about Hamas diverting potential dual-use materials — specifically cement — for militant ends such as tunnel construction. The GRM would be overseen by senior officials representing the UN, Israel, and the PA. Hamas, as an internationally designated terrorist organization, could not be a legitimate go-between for reconstruction assistance and so was excluded by design.

Coming out of the war, all of the relevant parties — even Hamas — agreed to move forward according to these terms. “We do not object to any mechanism established by the UN,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk in September. And in October, PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah stated that his government “will exert all efforts to recover, repair, and rebuild Gaza as an integral region of Palestine.”

Read the article in full at the Washington Institute.