Reports that Shin Bet chief David Zini met in the United Arab Emirates with Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah figure and former Palestinian security chief in Gaza, have stirred confusion and speculation in Palestinian political circles.
Sources familiar with the matter said the contacts, along with reports suggesting that Dahlan — a longtime rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — could be considered for a role in governing Gaza after Hamas, sparked intense discussion among Palestinian officials.
But Palestinian Authority officials and people close to Dahlan stressed that the meeting was neither coordinated nor part of any agreed initiative, and said it did not signal a future appointment. “Attempts to portray this as involving personal deals or positions are wrong,” a senior Palestinian Authority official familiar with the matter told ynet.
The official said any regional discussions concern only broad scenarios. “The Palestinian position is clear: Gaza is an inseparable part of the Palestinian space, and there is no basis and will be no basis for the idea of separating or dividing it from the West Bank,” the official said. “We are not at the stage of agreements or implementation. Anything presented as a closed framework or understandings is premature. Many ideas are being raised, but there is no agreed path or operational decisions.”
'There is no negotiation here'
A source close to Dahlan described the meeting as “almost accidental and not planned in advance.”
“Dahlan did not enter the meeting intending to advance a role or future involvement in Gaza,” the source said. “He arrived, listened to what was presented to him, and that was it. There is no negotiation here, no discussion of a role and no attempt to build a new status or political path for him.”
The associate said Dahlan, who has lived in the UAE for years, is not seeking a role in the Palestinian Authority or elsewhere and would not accept any plan separating Gaza from the West Bank.
The source said Dahlan remains focused on humanitarian aid for Gaza through regional ties, mainly in the Khan Younis area, including medical supplies and civilian assistance coordinated through contacts in the UAE.
In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Dahlan’s name had come up during talks on a broader Israel-Hamas deal as a possible figure to oversee Gaza, at least temporarily. According to that report, officials in Israel, the United States and Arab mediating countries supported the idea, while Hamas indicated it could accept Dahlan as an interim solution to help end the war.
The plan did not materialize, and Dahlan remained in the UAE.
After the report, Dahlan told Sky News Arabia that he rejected any “security, executive or ministerial position” and called for an international plan leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Dahlan headed the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service in Gaza in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the Second Intifada, Israeli intelligence officials linked him to several attacks in Gaza, including the 2000 bombing of a children’s bus near Kfar Darom, in which two Israelis were killed.
Tehila Cohen, a survivor of the attack, criticized any contact with Dahlan in an interview Tuesday with ynet studio.
“Why is he alive? It breaks your heart,” she said. “This is evil, and evil should be destroyed. A terrorist should be treated as a terrorist, not as a human being. He should not be alive, period.”
Recalling the attack, Cohen said children from Kfar Darom took a daily school shuttle to Neve Dekalim, a nearby Israeli settlement in Gaza that was evacuated during Israel’s 2005 disengagement.
“They knew there was a shuttle every morning at 7 carrying children, so they planted a roadside bomb and detonated it remotely from behind the trees,” she said. “Two people were killed. I was injured and have had two leg prostheses ever since, and two of my brothers were also wounded.”