Hamas officials have sent mixed messages regarding the recent proposals to establish a government of technocrats. Salah Bardawil, head of the Hamas bloc in PLC, spoke to Ma’an news on Friday, explaining Hamas’ acceptance of the technocrat plan. According to Ma’an, he agreed to the formation of a technocrat government, to be comprised of professionals and other qualified persons, so long as it has a clear political platform agreed upon by the various Palestinian factions. He said that the national accord document, which is signed by all factions, should be used as a reference point. He also emphasized that the establishment of the new technocrat government must lead to the lifting of Palestine’s economic embargo.

Bardawil also dismissed the latest diplomatic efforts coming from Egypt, as they focus on the soldier issue and not on Palestinian unity. “These efforts were in order to reactivate the issue of the soldier and overcome this dilemma,” he told Ma’an.

Hamas insists on a quid pro quo soldier exchange, in which Palestinian prisoners would be released at the same time Shalit is handed over to the Israelis. A new development in the Shalit affair unfolded today, Saturday, when Ahmed Yousef, the senior political advisor to Prime Minister Haniyyeh, announced that Israel had agreed to a prisoner exchange. According to his statement, a number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-ranking Hamas members, will be released in exchange for Shalit.

Yousef also said that after the upcoming Eid, Qatar is expected to present an updated version of its initiative for an agreement between Hamas and Fateh. This comes just weeks after Qatar’s foreign minister failed to seal an agreement between Haniyyeh and Abbas during his Gaza visit.

Hamas and Fateh officials are expected to meet in Cairo following the Eid, but developments in Gaza could change the nature of these meetings.

According to inside sources, Abbas rejected overtures made by Haniyyeh to hold a meeting with the Palestinian President in Gaza. On Friday, Haniyyeh rejected the technocrat government proposal in his speech at Nuseirat refugee camp, saying he insisted on a national unity government instead. Given the contradiction between Haniyyeh’s statement and that of PLC member Bardawil, the official Hamas stance on this development remains unclear.

As the political posturing between Hamas and Fateh leadership continues, so have physical confrontations. In the past weeks, Hamas has already strengthened its Executive Force, its security apparatus in Gaza. Today, Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahhar announced that the government is prepared to establish an Executive Force presence in the West Bank for the first time.

The Executive Force was created by the Hamas government after coming to power in January 2006. Initially it included only 3,500 soldiers, but has since grown to around 5,700. There are rumors of plans to expand it to some 10,000 members.

“We will increase the numbers of the Executive Force several times over. We will do so in the West Bank in order to protect the Council of Ministers, so our ministers will not be assaulted,” announced Zahhar from Khan Younis. The proposed expansion is also intended to counter the speculated expansion of the Presidential Guard, the elite unit that provides personal protection to the President. This guard is only 3,500 men strong, but after a recent visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US allegedly pledged to provide millions of dollars to expand the Guard to 6,000 soldiers.

Zahhar also countered Fateh’s calls for early elections, telling a gathering of 20,000 Palestinians at a festival in Khan Younis, “Those who threaten us with early elections, we will enter the municipal elections and we will win, we will enter the legislative elections and we will win, we will enter the presidential elections and we will win.”

Following Zahhar’s statements, a Fateh spokesman from the Tulkarem area, Sameer Nayfah, announced his opposition to the proposed expansion of the Executive Force. He referred to Zahhar’s comments as “strange statements” that do not serve national security, “rather, it pours oil onto the fire.”

There have been rumors of expansion circulating for months, but there are many obstacles preventing Hamas from extending its force into the West Bank. The proposed West Bank Executive Force would be concentrated in the northern West Bank, where there is also a strong Fateh presence. Also, the nature of the occupation in the West Bank would make it more difficult for Hamas to gather the necessary weapons to assemble a substantial, well-trained and well-armed military unit.

In a press statement released today, Nayfah added: "What we hoped from Zahhar, as a prominent leader of the Hamas movement, is to state that his government will review the role of this force and to announce the cease of its work as a minimum, but we were surprised that he announced the increase of numbers of this force and the intention to deploy its members in the streets of the West Bank cities."