After 17 years, Mahmoud Abbas now wants to visit Gaza. What do Palestinians think?

Yesterday, the Palestinian Authority's presidency office announced it has begun preparations to garner international backing to help Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president, visit the war-torn, besieged Gaza Strip. 

"Preparations are taking place for the leadership's planned visit to Gaza [...] Palestinian officials are communicating with pro-Palestine countries to get their support," the Palestinian presidency said in a press statement sent to The New Arab, noting that the office is engaging with the UN agencies, UN Security Council members, Arab and Islamic countries, the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the EU, the African Union, and other global powers to ensure the initiative's success.

Mahmoud Abbas recently vowed to visit Gaza "as soon as possible" to demonstrate his [and the Palestinian leadership] "solidarity" with the population in the coastal enclave. 

"I will do that even if it costs my life [...] Our life is not more worthy than the life of a child in Gaza," Abbas declared during a special session of the Turkish parliament last Thursday 

The 89-year-old Palestinian president, who is based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, has not been to Gaza since Hamas, which won the elections in 2006, took power in 2007 after an internal battle against Fatah forces. 

Abbas's speech also was the first time he didn't condemn Hamas, rather focusing on national unity, and comes after more than ten months into Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. 

Palestinians in Gaza are divided over his declared intention to visit, with the overall sentiment leaning towards he should not be welcome after being silent for so long as Israel killed and continues to kill tens of thousands of civilians. 

17 years too late?

Omer al-Madhoun, welcomed the idea of Abbas visiting Gaza. 

"Despite my reservations about many of the Palestinian president's actions towards Gaza, I hope his visit may put an end to the division and we [Palestinians] appear as a unified community to the world," the 43-year-old father of two told TNA. "Because of this division, Israel was able to achieve many political, military and security gains." 

"We are tired in Gaza. We deserve to live in peace and rebuild our country and our lives. This will never be achieved as long as the internal division continues," he added.

But al-Madhoun's cautious optimism isn't shared widely. 

For his part, Hamada Abu Hatab, a resident from the Shujaiya neighbourhood east of Gaza City, denounced how long it took Abbas to talk about Gaza as part of the Palestinian homeland after "he ignored Gaza for more than 17 years due to his political differences with Hamas."

"They [Fatah and Hamas] are all responsible for the deterioration of our cause. They made us face many wars with Israel without even trying to unify their ranks to protect us from Israeli crimes," the 45-year-old father of seven said to The New Arab. 

During this brutal Israeli war, Abu Hatab has been forcibly displaced multiple times and an Israeli attack on the al-Mawasi area in the west of Khan Younis city killed two of his children. 

 "Where was President Abbas when Israel committed this crime? Did he know that his people were being executed in cold blood in front of the world's shameful silence? Why does he want to come now? Is it to reap the gains of the war?" Abu Hatab questioned. 

"I think he would like to take advantage of such a golden opportunity to return to Gaza to power the devastated areas over the Israeli tank," he added. 

"We do not want to see anyone from the Palestinian leadership from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. They have left us to face destruction and death for years, so we do not want anything from them now," the grieving man said.  

'We paid the price'

Marwa al-Dahdouh, a Gaza-based Palestinian teacher, echoed Abu Hatab's bitterness.

"What benefit does Abbas' visit bring for us? Will it restore what we lost in this war? Will it give us the strength to continue living on the ruins of our homes, dreams and future? [...] This visit will only bring more oppression and pain to us after they left us alone to die by US-Israeli weapons," the 39-year-old woman said to TNA. 

Dalal Abu Ajwa, another woman in Gaza, sarcastically wondered where Abbas and his entourage would stay in Gaza, after Israel destroyed all the hotels and most of the people's homes in Gaza. 

"Will they live in tents like the displaced? Eat canned food? Search for clean drinking water? Or will they order food delivery from friendly countries like the US, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and others?" she rhetorically asked. 

"The day after this devastating war, no one has the right to show sympathy for us [...] Neither Abbas nor the Palestinian Authority, Hamas nor Fatah, should have authority over us because we are the ones that paid the price," Abu Ajwa concluded.