Abbas blasts Hamas for takeover, rules out negotiations
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at the Islamic militants of Hamas on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to build an “empire of darkness” in the Gaza Strip and pledging he would not negotiate with the “murderous terrorists.”
Addressing Palestinians for the first time since Hamas seized control of Gaza a week ago, Abbas said Hamas had attacked “national symbols” during the fighting in the coastal territory, including ransacking the house of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
Today, an Abbas aide said that Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders had been invited by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to attend a summit in Egypt. The meeting is to take place Sunday, said the aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo.
In other developments, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni talked by telephone Wednesday with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister named by Abbas to head a new Cabinet that excludes Hamas. It was the first direct contact between Israel and the new government.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would soon unfreeze millions of dollars in Palestinian tax receipts and turn them over to Abbas’ administration.
Several hours before Abbas’ speech, Israel fired missiles and sent tanks on a foray into Gaza, killing four Palestinians in the deadliest military action since Hamas militants took control there. Two more militants were killed by Israeli army fire in a shootout in the West Bank.
After nightfall, the Palestinians hit back with a barrage of rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
Abbas’ scathing criticism of Hamas came in a televised speech to a top PLO body, the Palestine National Council, seeking support for his declaring a state of emergency and his dismissing of the Hamas-led coalition Cabinet and naming an emergency Cabinet of moderates.
Abbas, leader of the more secular Fatah movement, was uncharacteristically harsh in his verbal attack on Hamas, which he said is trying to establish an “empire of darkness” in Gaza. He called it a conflict “between those who are using assassination and killing to achieve their goals, and those who are using the rules of law.”
Disdaining Hamas, he added, “There is no dialogue with those murderous terrorists.”
At one point, Abbas described in great detail what he said was a Hamas attempt to assassinate him. He said he obtained video of Hamas members dragging explosives through a tunnel they dug under Gaza’s main road – the one he takes to his office – and saying “this is for Abu Mazen,” Abbas’ nickname.
In an attempt to consolidate its power, the West Bank-based government that Abbas installed Sunday annulled all decisions made by the previous Hamas-led administration, Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said.
He said security personnel were being deployed across the West Bank to keep order.