Hamas terrorists in Gaza (file)
Hamas terrorists in Gaza (file)Flash 90

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are at odds again, Palestinian sources told Walla! News Friday - this time, over rebuilding Gaza.

Hamas stated repeatedly during Operation Protective Edge that it would allow PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to supervise Gaza's reconstruction, following the IDF's revelation that much of the construction materials shipped to the local government, which is run by the terror organization, is used to construct terror tunnels and for arms imports. 

Now, however, "Hamas is preventing Palestinians from returning to work in Gaza," a senior PA source said to the news outlet. Before the operation, the source noted, the PA appointed leaders for five government districts there and were told to take office in Gaza; Hamas has stopped the leaders from returning. 

The announcement surfaces amid multiple reports over the past several months that the unity government itself has been slowly crumbling.

Differences of opinion have surfaced over several issues, including the war in Gaza, reactions to the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and the delayed payment of wages for government workers in Gaza in the weeks leading up to Operation Protective Edge. 

More recently, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) revealed that a large-scale coup had been planned by Hamas in Judea and Samaria to overthrow the PA and Abbas's Fatah party, in orders given from Hamas officials abroad. 

Shortly after the plot was revealed, Abbas said the information could have lasting implications for the Palestinian Arab people.

"This new information is a real danger to the unity of the Palestinian people and its future," Abbas stated, according to Channel 2 News. He stressed that the implications of the discovery "will be serious for the Palestinian and regional situation, especially after Israeli officials published a list and pictures of confiscated weapons."

Hamas has also executed dozens of Fatah members on charges of "collaboration with Israel" over the past two weeks, in widely publicized killings that have garnered international criticism and sown discord between the Palestinian Arab groups. 

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)