[Ma'an] Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Dahlan said Monday the de facto government has detained an operative involved in Friday's deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian fighters and two Israeli soldiers. The detainee, a member of Hamas' security forces, has been jailed in Gaza, Dahlan told students at the An-Najjah University, who refused to reveal his name.
Dahlan told students at the Nablus university that Hamas has yet to build anything substantial for Gaza throughout its rule over the coastal enclave "except for the total destruction of Gaza and murder."
Friday's deadly clashes in southern Gaza were the most violent since Israel ended its devastating assault on the coastal enclave 14 months ago.
"We have passed the stage for speeches and entered the stage of national action," Dahlan said, and warned of previous mistakes that could ruin the political future of Palestine.
The Fatah official said fellow Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, one of the Palm Sunday detainees still in Israeli custody, was implementing Fatah's decision to undertake popular resistance against Israeli forces and practices. Dahlan considered the First Intifada to have accomplished great achievements and international balance, unlike the Second Intifada, which "made us pay an expensive price."
"Israel was from then on able to continue indiscriminately detaining Palestinians on charges of terrorism," Dahlan said.
Concerning the present political situation, Dahlan said "for the first time we were able to achieve unity in political discourse ... we are committed to the parameters set out by Abu Ammar [late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat]," adding that the goal is to achieve a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.
Dahlan renewed Fatah and the Palestinian Authority's position on withholding talks until a settlement moratorium is implement across the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
"[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu knows our position well, and we will repeat it here today: there won't be negotiations while settlement expansion and building continues."