PLO: Hamas exploiting blood spilled in Gaza

Palestinian Authority will not allow Hamas to turn Gaza into a "separatist entity" in the wake of Israel's military operation there, a senior aide to president Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday.

 

"We will not allow the creation of a separatist entity, no matter what the price," Yasser Abed Rabbo told a press conference. "The plot aiming to separate Gaza from the West Bank will not pass."

 

Abbas has not controlled Gaza since June 2007, when Hamas booted forces loyal to his secular Fatah party from the coastal strip.

 

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Abed Rabbo accused Hamas's exiled political chief Khaled Mashaal of "using slogans and exploiting the blood spilled in Gaza to cover his separatist projects."

 

He also accused "Hamas gangs" in Gaza of ordering dozens of Fatah members under house arrest during the Israeli offensive and of "arresting, beating and shooting in the legs" others