Palestinian Unity Gov't. Still Sputtering
JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Palestinian Authority unity government has yet to function as a cohesive coalition, as disputes between rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, continue.
In a statement Sunday, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk accused the P.A. government of failing to carry out the "duties and responsibilities" of the unity coalition.
"Hamas has questions about several issues that are the duties and responsibilities of the national consensus government," the P.A.'s semi-official Ma'an News Agency quoted Marzouk.
According to the report, those issues include reconstructing buildings damaged during last summer's military confrontation with Israel, paying government workers' salaries and replacing Hamas security forces on the Gaza side of border crossings with Israel.
The ceasefire arrangement between Hamas and Israel specified the need to monitor construction materials entering the Gaza Strip to ensure it would not be used to rebuild the terror infrastructure.
Israel already began delivering building material, including concrete, which Hamas has used in the past to build its network of smuggling tunnels.
An international fund-raiser in Cairo last week reportedly raised $5.4 billion to reconstruct neighborhoods hit by retaliatory Israeli airstrikes against Hamas rocket attacks, which left more than 100,000 Gazans homeless.
Israel Air Force pilots targeted weapons warehouses, explosives labs, and rocket launch pads in residential areas, which has long been the terror group's signature.
Meanwhile, Hamas continues boasting it's rebuilding the attack tunnels that Israel destroyed during Operation Protective Edge.
Jerusalem Post Palestinian Affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh cited a Hamas website saying tunnel construction never stopped and never will.
According to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' "military" wing, the men relish "every inch they dig as a place where an Israeli soldier would be kidnapped or killed."
The website quotes several jihadists thanking Allah for making them "soldiers specialized in digging tunnels," something they see as pleasing their god, whom they believe will reward their hard work.
In the summer operation, Israeli ground troops, supported by IAF aircraft, destroyed more than 30 attack tunnels dug under Israel's border with the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, P.A. Foreign Minister Riyad Mansour boasted the Palestinian Authority will have a unanimous decision by year's end at the U.N. Security Council in favor of a Palestinian state.
A U.N. Security Council resolution would set the stage to force hundreds of thousands of Israelis to leave their homes in the Land they believe God promised them as an eternal inheritance.
