Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas returned to the Gaza Strip on Sunday night "to make a final attempt" to reach an agreement with Hamas on the formation of a national-unity government, PA officials said. "This is Hamas's last chance," one official told The Jerusalem Post. "Either they accept our terms of the establishment of a national-unity government or we will have to form a new government." Another official said Abbas, who is scheduled to hold a number of meetings with PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over the next few days, is determined to make "courageous" decisions to change the situation in the Palestinian arena before the end of the month. He said Abbas was expected to issue a "final ultimatum" to Hamas to accept his conditions for the establishment of a national-unity government or else he would dismiss the Hamas-controlled government and establish a new one comprising independent figures and technocrats.
Abbas's major conditions, according to the official, include demands that Hamas accept the peace initiative announced by the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002, all United Nations resolutions regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict and honor all agreements that were signed between Israel and the Palestinians.