Bethlehem – Ma’an – “Hamas and Netanyahu believe the PA security structure is an obstacle in front of the temporary [borders] state option,” Fatah leader Jamal Nazzal proclaimed Saturday.

Nazzal accused Israel and Hamas of collaborating on a rumored two-phase peace deal revealed by the Israeli press and apparently confirmed by President Mahmoud Abbas during an interview with BBC Arabic on Thursday. Hamas leaders categorically denied any secret talks with Israel.

Member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and party spokesperson, Nazzal, also linked the alleged collaboration with recent Israeli detentions of PA security personnel, five of whom were detained Friday and later released, and another three reportedly detained Saturday morning. Israeli media reported that the initial detentions were related to the investigation of a suspected double agent, acused of handing information to Israel.

Nazzal said it was no coincidence that the PA forces were targeted by Israel immediately after Abbas revealed that there were secret negotiations going on between Israel and Hamas over the peace deal. The two-phase deal would see a Palestinian state declared with temporary boundaries and a gradual pullout of Israeli forces, with the second phase seeing the solidification of boundaries in exchange for the Palestinian recognition of a Jewish Israeli state, he said.

The conditions of both phases have been rejected in several earlier proposals by PA officials.

Linking an apparent increase in available weapons to Hamas members in areas designated “Area C” under the Oslo Accords (under Israeli civil and military control and where it is generally prohibited for PA officers to go), Nazzal went further and said the arms were “Israeli-backed.”

The Fatah official said a threat of a Hamas takeover of the West Bank by an Israeli-backed Hamas was meant to pressure the PLO into accepting the terms of a temporary state.

Nazzal suggested Israel’s recent targeting of PA officers “laid the ground” for a state with temporary boundaries, and called on Hamas to “think twice” before moving ahead with the plan.

The official further warned Hamas that “Fatah and the PA” would take steps in response to the most recent move, as well as what he called the Hamas “betrayal” of 2007, when infighting lead to the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

'Which Hamas?'

Second Fatah spokesman Fayez Abu Aita weighed in on the debate later Saturday, saying Palestinians often do not know "which Hamas" they are dealing with.

Abu Aita delineated what he called two separate tracks within the movement; one under leader in exile Khalid Mash'al in Damascus, "who says that his movement is pushing forward a political initiative based on resistance and the refusal of settlements." Then, he added, there is the Hamas of Salah Al-Bardawil, "who recently announced Hamas was ready to sign a ten-year truce with Israel."

"The Hamas movement is experiencing an unprecedented state of confusion," Abu Aita said, and explained the fractures as the the result of Hamas having "reached a point where its interests and narrow partisan agenda contradicts with the national interests of our people."

The official accused Hamas of further fracturing Palestinians society, "As the PLO tries to establish a united Palestinian front to face settlements, siege, the wall, and the targeting of holy places."