⚡️🇵🇸 — Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have agreed to form an «unexpected electoral coalition» with former senior Fatah official and UAE presidential adviser Mohammed Dahlan, Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Mohammed al-Hindi told AP. The alliance could challenge Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s political dominance if the planned 28 November elections proceed, the first Palestinian legislative vote in roughly two decades.

Sources close to Dahlan separately told ynet that efforts are underway to establish a broad Palestinian coalition for elections in the West Bank and Gaza and confirmed the AP report; they identified the inclusion of Marwan Barghouti on a unified list as a key element, aimed at creating a political framework capable of securing U.S. and regional legitimacy.

➡️ This alliance ends a 20-year geopolitical taboo. In the 1990s, Dahlan led Fatah’s brutal security crackdown against Hamas in Gaza, culminating in the 2007 civil war that violently expelled him from the Strip. Their current alignment proves that the mutual goal of unseating Mahmoud Abbas has completely overridden decades of ideological and physical warfare.

➡️ To bypass international vetoes, the joint list will prioritize independent, technocratic figures rather than high-profile militants. This creates a political firewall: utilizing Hamas’s domestic machinery while presenting a civilian face. By anchoring the list with Dahlan (backed by the UAE) and Marwan Barghouti (the most popular secular figure), the coalition aims to engineer a post-conflict governing entity that Washington, regional Arab states, and Israel cannot easily dismiss.

➡️ No Palestinian vote can occur without Israel's logistical compliance regarding security coordination and voting access in East Jerusalem. Furthermore, because Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison, his placement on the list acts as high-stakes leverage, forcing Israel to choose between blocking the democratic process entirely or facing intense regional pressure over a high-profile political prisoner.

➡️ The ultimate wildcard remains whether the vote will materialize. President Mahmoud Abbas has a documented history of indefinitely postponing or canceling democratic polls when facing imminent defeat—most notably in 2021. With his 20-year dominance threatened by this "super-coalition," a tactical cancellation citing logistical or security constraints remains highly probable.

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