Gaza – Ma’an – Hamas hailed late President Yasser Arafat as an icon of struggle on the fifth anniversary of his death Wednesday, despite the ongoing bitter feud with the current leaders of Arafat's party, the Fatah movement.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, "for Fatah, Arafat's death meant [the party's] decision-making process was thrown off track, but to the Palestinian people, his death meant losing a symbolic leader committed to the Palestinian cause whether we agreed with him or not.”

In his speech, Barhoum also referred to the widely-held belief that Arafat was poisoned as Israel kept him under virtual house arrest in his Ramallah compound during the Ramallah siege in 2004. Barhoum said the death showed that leaders who defend Palestinian rights and principles must eventually “pay the price.”

Referring to the declaration of the second intifada in 2000, Barhoum said Arafat made the ultimate sacrifice because he returned to “resistance” after long years of negotiations, a call that Hamas is currently directing toward President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders in the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat in Gaza, a unifying figure

In Gaza, Arafat is remembered as a leader who, whatever his flaws, managed to maintain national unity.

Leaders of several Palestinian factions in Gaza praised Arafat as a symbol of unity and struggle on the anniversary of his death.

A Fatah-affiliated lawmaker, and member of the movement’s Revolutionary Council Faysal Abu Shahla commented, “The symbolic leader and founder Yasser Arafat devoted his life to liberating Palestinian lands and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. He never deviated from his principles, and he gave his life for that.”

A senior leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Saleh Zeidan described Arafat as a historic Palestinian leader whom the Palestinians remember during hardships. “He was the man for hardships, and his name became a part of Arab and Palestinian history,” he added.

Khalid Al-Batsh, a leader of Islamic Jihad, said his movement would continue with resistance, which he said was Arafat’s own strategy. He also said the Islamic Jihad would adhere to national unity as did Arafat, Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shiqaqi, and Hamas founder Ahmad Yasin.