Hamas has objected to three points in the Egyptian unity proposal, which was hammered out after several rounds of negotiations among Palestinian factions in Cairo last year: the composition of the General Elections Committee, the section on reforming Palestinian security forces, which mentions only Gaza, and the lack of guarantees that Hamas members and affiliates who were fired in the wake of the fighting that led to a de facto division of the occupied Palestinian territories in 2007 will be hired again and recompensed.

So far, there has been no progress on resolving these points of contention, Mahmoud Ramahi, a Hamas legislator from the West Bank, said yesterday.

“Unity talks are still at point zero. Hamas has said clearly that it will never sign the Egyptian document without some changes or at least some letter of guarantee or notes of explanation about the three points.”

Mr Ramahi said Egyptian and US pressure on Mr Abbas is primarily to blame for the impasse. Without that pressure, he said, the differences between Fatah and Hamas could be overcome.

“The problem is not here. Egypt is dealing with the Palestinian division as a security issue rather than a political one,” the Hamas legislator said.