Fatah and Hamas movements have stepped up their dispute over a truce deal with Israel in the Gaza Strip as Egypt has sought to push inter-Palestinian reconciliation forward. Fatah has presented a comprehensive response to the Egyptian reconciliation document and warned that it will have an immediate response if Hamas strikes a truce deal with Israel before completing the reconciliation process. Hamas rejected the warning, accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) of besieging Gaza. Member of Fatah Central Committee Hussein al-Sheikh asserted that a ceasefire is not possible before “achieving reconciliation.” He warned that the Palestinian leadership will consider other alternatives if reconciliation is not achieved. Sheikh didn’t refer to Egypt’s role in the process, but said Hamas and others want to topple the PA to satisfy Israel and the US. He added that if President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the truce according to the standards set by Israel, he would immediately win praise and receive the Nobel Prize. The Fatah member asserted that the movement supports a comprehensive truce that must include the West Bank and not just the Gaza Strip. Abbas has reportedly criticized the potential ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, saying in private conversations that such a deal would only be reached “over my dead body,” according to a top Fatah official. The official explained that if the “agreement is signed without the PA’s permission, it will be considered illegal and amount to treason.” According to the official, Abbas was also furious at Egypt. Hamas responded to the criticism, claiming there is a “national consensus” among the Palestinian people in favor of a long-term Gaza ceasefire with Israel. Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanua slammed Fatah, saying Hamas is not playing a role in an international deal that gives up Palestinian lands, recognizes the occupier or destroys the national project, “as you did.” “We didn’t recognize the Zionist entity and sanctify the security coordination, as you did at the expense of our people,” he added. Hamas dismissed the PA criticism as “worthless” and asserted it was “not fooling anybody — the people still support the resistance and we will keep our hand on the trigger to defend the Palestinian people from the Zionist occupation.” The statement called on the PA and Fatah to withdraw their recognition of Israel, stop the security coordination with it and lift the sanctions imposed on Gaza. Qanua’s verbal attack on Fatah came as another senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, accused Abbas of disrupting the completion of intra-Palestinian reconciliation. Hamdan said on Monday that even if a ceasefire is achieved with Israel, Hamas will continue to "build its capabilities because it has no faith in the Zionist enemy." "The ceasefire arrangement does not include the construction of a seaport or an airport outside the Palestinian territories; everything published so far on this matter is a lie," declared Hamdan. “If a ceasefire is achieved, then we will not delay the lifting of the siege and the sanctions on the Gaza Strip,” he concluded. Member of the Central Committee of Fatah Movement and Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Front Azzam al-Ahmad offered the movement’s final response to the Egyptian document, saying it included mechanisms on the implementation of reconciliation. Ahmad added that the message stipulated the importance of implementing all clauses that Fatah and Hamas have agreed on. He hoped the demands will be met, including the return of ministers to Gaza to assume their work normally, ending the mission of the committee assigned to study the situation of employees hired by Hamas during the division, and terminating the committees in charge of reconciliation, public freedoms, and security. “We want to settle the issue and focus on confronting the malign US strategy biased to Israel,” Ahmad stated, asserting that a ceasefire agreement with Israel should be reached only after achieving reconciliation. Egypt has informed the Palestinian factions that the talks will be postponed. Fatah is now waiting for Cairo’s response after meeting with Hamas officials. Fatah wants comprehensive empowerment, including the security services, the judiciary, land authority and tax collection, and Hamas wants a partnership that will ensure that its employees, including the military, are taken into account and the sanctions are lifted on the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah renewed his call on Hamas to respond to the presidents plan to restore national unity without conditions or restrictions.