TNA Staff
The New Arab / August 22, 2026
Fatah is moving to block the PFLP from joining an emerging Hamas-Dahlan electoral alliance ahead of Palestinian elections in November vote.
An emerging electoral alliance bringing together Hamas, Mohammed Dahlan’s Fatah Reform Current and other Palestinian factions is taking shape ahead of November’s legislative elections, as Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah moves to prevent the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from joining the bloc.
Palestinian sources have told The New Arab that the proposed alliance would include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Dahlan’s Reform Current, Nasser al-Qudwa’s National Democratic Forum and the Popular Resistance Committees.
The development comes ahead of Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for 28 November, which would be the first such vote since 2006.
The emerging bloc brings together factions with sharply differing political and ideological positions, but which share opposition to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Fatah under President Mahmoud Abbas.
It follows a series of meetings in Egypt over the past two weeks, including talks in El Alamein between Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and Dahlan, the former senior Fatah figure expelled from the movement following a dispute with Abbas.
Sources told The New Arab that Dahlan played a role in persuading Hamas to move ahead with US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza and had promised to seek US and European support for its participation in the elections.
The negotiations appear to have prompted a response from Fatah, with a senior delegation expected to arrive in Cairo on Sunday for meetings with Egyptian officials, Hamas and the PFLP.
Sources have said that the delegation will include Fatah deputy leader Hussein al-Sheikh, Central Committee member Majed Faraj and Executive Committee member Rawhi Fattouh.
One source said that the delegation “will meet the leadership of the PFLP and will press it not to participate in the political alliance being formed to contest the upcoming legislative elections in November.
The Fatah delegation is also expected to discuss arrangements for holding the elections in Gaza with Hamas, particularly as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza is not expected to have assumed responsibility for the enclave by November.
The discussions follow a meeting in Cairo on Thursday attended by representatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Reform Current and the PFLP.
Al-Qudwa, a former Palestinian foreign minister who heads the National Democratic Forum, told The New Arab that the meeting discussed forming a broad national list.
“All those who participated in the meeting agreed to the idea, with the exception of the PFLP, which asked for more time,” al-Qudwa said.
“The idea behind the meeting was to propose forming a national list that includes all parties, without direct factional participation (…) We do not want to call it a factional list. There is considerable room for the participation of young people, women and all sections of society,” he added.
Asked whether it amounted to a national alliance, al-Qudwa said: “I am not in favour of an alliance with any party against another party. What was discussed was simply the idea of a broad national list, not an alliance.”
Islamic Jihad, however, has described the talks in different terms.
A senior source in the movement told The New Arab that “the movement has agreed in principle to participate in the national alliance project, which would form a national bloc,” while stressing that consultations were continuing.
The source said Islamic Jihad had not abandoned its opposition to the 1993 Oslo Accords, “and for this reason there are points that remain under discussion”.
Its participation would mark the first time the movement has agreed to take part in Palestinian legislative elections, although a final decision has not yet been made.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also attended Thursday’s Cairo meeting but has postponed a decision on how it will participate until the proposal is discussed internally.
The manoeuvring comes as Fatah faces internal tensions following its eighth conference in May, which saw several veteran figures sidelined and figures close to Abbas rise through the movement, including his son Yasser Abbas, who was elected to Fatah’s Central Committee.
A Palestinian official close to top political circles has meanwhile cast doubt on whether the November elections will take place as scheduled.
“The legislative elections will not be held on the announced date. There are many obstacles, and the alliance now being discussed could itself become a factor pushing towards postponement,” the official told The New Arab.
“The justifications for such a postponement would certainly be different, and it would not be said that it was due to fear of the alliance or the results,” the official added.
