Hamas rejects unilateral dissolution of Palestinian unity

Spokesman says Gaza Strip rulers were not consulted and know nothing of Abbas’s plan to dismantle joint government

Hamas said Wednesday it rejected any unilateral dissolution of the Palestinian unity government after senior officials reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced the government would resign.

“Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

“No one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government. Fatah acted on its own in all regards.”

Several senior officials said Tuesday that Abbas told members of his Fatah party that the Palestinian government would resign within 24 hours.

The move would signal a fresh setback in efforts to reconcile Gaza, dominated by Hamas, with the West Bank, where Abbas’s Palestinian Authority rules.

It also comes as Israel and Hamas hold separate, indirect talks on ways to cement a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip following last year’s 50-day war.

The unity government was formed last year before the war between the Islamic terrorist group Hamas and Israel. It came after years of feuding between the rival Palestinian groups.

But the government did not function well and the sides have argued over how to carry out reconstruction of the war-battered Gaza Strip and other issues.

Hamas violently seized Gaza from Abbas’s forces in 2007, leaving him governing just parts of the West Bank.