Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday.
First off, why anybody is downvoting this link from Reuters is beyond me. Don't shoot the messenger.
Secondly, this is why Palestinians can't have nice things ... like a homeland Israel doesn't control. All because Hamas is acting like a dictatorial asshole. The hell they won't allow elections??? It's because they might not win, so all Palestinians lose instead.
Egypt proposed elections while offering assurances to Hamas that its members would not be chased or prosecuted, but the Islamist group rejected any concessions other than hostage releases, the sources said.
People downvote anything that doesn't fit their narrative sadly, especially on Lemmy where downvotes are anonymous. (Compared to kbin/mbin where they're public)
And yes, there were no elections in Gaza since Hamas takeover of the Gaza strip, Hamas actually pushed out opposition it had in there (ex. FATAH) and either killed them or forced them to leave.
I think there may be a lot of people who think Hamas is the Palestinian resistance, and don't realize that they're a third party here. You hear a lot of apologetics along the lines of "what other option do they have" and "it makes sense for someone who grew up around this". I'm not sure how you correct this sort of thing en masse though.