Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Palestinian government dismissed by President Mahmoud Abbas, called for power-sharing talks on Saturday with Fatah rivals routed from the Gaza Strip. "There will be no dialogue with Hamas," responded Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Fatah official in the West Bank.
Hamas seized control of Gaza just over a week ago and faces isolation there, not only from Israel and Western powers, but also from the emergency cabinet Abbas had set up in the occupied West Bank as well as from Arab states like Egypt and Jordan.
Abbas issued orders on Saturday appointing a commission to investigate how his Fatah forces lost control of the strip to the Islamist group, and dismissing a senior Gaza commander who "surrendered" rather than fight. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Hamas's bloody take-over of Gaza amounted to a "coup against legitimacy" that damaged the Palestinian cause.
Israel plans to choke off all but humanitarian and basic supplies to Gaza, home to 1.5 million people, while opening the financial taps to Abbas's emergency government. Some aid groups said Abbas's decision to sever contacts with the Hamas leadership in Gaza was holding up negotiations on reopening Gaza's main commercial crossing at Karni. Israel will begin next week to transfer tax revenues to Abbas's emergency government in the West Bank and will ease some travel restrictions there.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will offer the gestures to Abbas on Monday when the leaders meet at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. In the West Bank, Israel on Saturday seized a top militant from the Islamist Hamas whom officials identified as the founder of the group's armed wing in the territory. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the arrest was proof "we are facing a dual conspiracy" in the West Bank, one led by Israel and the other by Abbas's security forces.
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