The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organizations refused to attend an emergency meeting of the Palestinian factions called for by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to Al-Jazeera, the factions refused the invitations in protest of PA security forces' arrests of their operatives.
In response to the two movements' refusal, Azzam al-Ahmad, a Fatah Central Committee member, said, "Hamas is putting obstacles in the way of holding an urgent meeting of the factions in Cairo".
He added that the Egyptian leadership welcomed Abbas' invitation to hold this meeting to discuss the need for cooperation in strengthening internal Palestinian unity in the face of Israeli aggression.
Abbas had invited the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions to hold an emergency meeting following the two-day IDF operation, which resulted in the death of 12 terrorists and the wounding of about 120 others.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement that the aim of this call is to agree "on a comprehensive national vision and unite the ranks to confront the Israeli aggression and confront it."
The refusal by the terror groups is just another sign of the heightened tensions between them and the party that rules in the PA-controlled territories. On Wednesday, al-Ahmad and additional PA officials tried to attend the funeral of one of the terrorists who were killed in the Israeli counterterrorism operation in Jenin but were chased away by locals who cursed and yelled at them to get out.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, on the other hand, called for "immediate action to agree on a comprehensive national plan to confront the Israeli project in Palestine."
In a joint statement issued Thursday, the two movements urged the necessity of putting this plan into effect immediately, including holding a meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions in light of what was achieved in Jenin and "the escalation of the resistance and its achievements on the ground."
The two movements said, "The achievement of the Palestinian resistance in Jenin would not have been achieved without the unity of our people and their fighters in the field."
The statement also called on all national parties to "move quickly to meet the challenges ahead in a way that responds to the hopes and aspirations of the people for liberation and return."