Abbas uses rally to attack rival Hamas

PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas used a rally commemorating the deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday to lash out at his rivals from the Islamic group Hamas.

Mr Abbas condemned Hamas’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and demanded the militant group “retract its black coup” before there can be any dialogue between rival Palestinian factions.

“There are those who stabbed our democracy and preferred the military coup to the path of national dialogue,” said Mr Abbas. Hamas “cannot erase Arafat’s achievements,” he added.

The hatred between Fatah and Hamas has grown since Fatah’s forces were defeated by Hamas in June, losing Gaza to the Islamic group in five days of fighting.

Mr Abbas also criticised Israel, calling its West Bank separation barrier the “ugly separation apartheid wall” and saying Palestinians remained committed to removing all Israeli settlements and checkpoints in the West Bank.

But he pledged to move ahead with peace talks with Israel, a policy condemned by Hamas, which remains committed toIsrael’s destruction.

Mr Abbas has met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference in Maryland, planned this month. The two leaders have been trying to draft an outline for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Israeli police investigators raided government buildings and private offices yesterday in connection with criminal probes of Mr Olmert, a police spokesman said.

The investigators were searching for evidence related to separate investigations of Mr Olmert in real estate and political corruption cases. They searched more than 20 locations, including Jerusalem City Hall.