Senior Abbas aide warns Hamas of early elections

RAMALLAH/GAZA - A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today urged Hamas to agree to fresh proposals to break a deadlock over unity government talks or face early elections.

Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters that Abbas sent a message to Hamas through Qatar's foreign minister, who was due to meet feuding Palestinian leaders in Gaza overnight (NZ time), that the governing Islamist movement had two options.

He said these were to accept proposals carried by Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani for a unity coalition or agree to appoint a cabinet of technocrats for a year.

"If Hamas rejects both options, we are heading for early elections," Abed Rabbo said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas' Fatah movement argues the president has the right to call early parliamentary elections, but Hamas disputes this.

Some Palestinian officials said the proposals for a unity government included recognition of Israel.

Hamas, which is sworn to destroy Israel, said that was a non-starter. Tensions over failed efforts to form a unity government have spilled over into armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah, stirring fears of civil war.

"Hamas does not accept a two state-solution or recognition of Israel," said Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas leader in Gaza.

Sheikh Hamad was expected to arrive in Gaza after visiting Hamas leaders in exile in Syria, Palestinian officials said.

Abbas, a moderate, was travelling to Gaza from Ramallah to meet Sheikh Hamad, officials said. But it was unclear if Abbas would also meet Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Abbas suggested last week he might sack Haniyeh's government after Hamas refused to meet his terms for a coalition that would at least implicitly recognise Israel.

Internal Palestinian fighting has killed 15 people since talks on the unity coalition foundered. Palestinians had hoped such an administration could help lift Western sanctions imposed on the Hamas government for its stance toward Israel.

Hamas took office after beating the long-dominant Fatah movement in January elections, and the two factions have been embroiled in a bitter power struggle ever since.

Yahya Moussa, a senior Hamas lawmaker in Gaza, played down the chance of a cabinet of technocrats taking shape.

"We are not ready to discuss other options apart from the unity government," Moussa said.

One item in the proposals being carried by Sheikh Hamad is a reference to a Palestinian state being established alongside Israel, in effect acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict, aides to Abbas said.

US ally Qatar has not signed a peace treaty with Israel but has friendlier relations with the Jewish state than most of the region.

The Israeli army killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded three other civilians in Gaza, witnesses and medical officials said.

The army said artillery fire was aimed at a person around the town of Beit Hanoun who was collecting a launcher used to fire a rocket into Israel over the weekend.

Around 225 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched an offensive in late June after gunmen seized a soldier in a cross-border raid.

- REUTERS