GAZA CITY, 22 December 2005 — Mahmoud Abbas’ aides talked yesterday about the possibility of postponing Jan. 25 Parliament elections, citing Israel’s decision to ban voting in Jerusalem.

Postponing or even canceling the Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary election could serve the interests of Abbas and the Israelis, but both sides dismissed speculation that they were in this together.

Hamas, entering a parliamentary race for the first time, expects to capitalize on internal bickering that has split Abbas’ Fatah party. Israel is alarmed at the possibility that Hamas could do well in the voting or even win. Both would welcome a way to reduce the influence of the movement, blamed for bombings.

Israeli officials said that unlike past elections, the 200,000 Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem would not be allowed to vote — part of Israel’s objection to Hamas taking part in the election.

The movement’s participation in the elections was one of the reasons cited by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office for not allowing Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem to participate in January’s election.

“In the past, we have allowed Palestinians to vote in post offices but not this time,” an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Israel captured and then annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war but the international community still regards the area, home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians, as occupied territory.

Abbas said the Palestinian leadership would carefully consider its next step, saying it had yet to be officially informed of Israel’s decision.

“The Palestinian leadership will study this issue before making a response, for the responsibility is enormous,” he said.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhhri said the Palestinian Authority should “multiply its contacts with the parties concerned to facilitate the holding of elections as was the case in the presidential election.”

The main Palestinian factions signed a truce back in March during talks hosted by Cairo. While the truce has largely held, there has been a recent spike in the firing of Qassams, rockets named after Hamas’ armed wing.

Meanwhile, Israel sought Egypt’s help to halt a feared upsurge in violence ahead of the polls. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held talks with Egypt’s intelligence services chief Omar Suleiman to use Cairo’s influence on fighter groups, accusing Abbas’ administration of sitting on its hands.

While Mofaz was looking for outside help to rein in groups such as Hamas, his army was taking action on the ground, killing a local leader of Hamas during an arrest operation in the northern West Bank.

Having warned of a resumption of Hamas violence ahead of the polls, Mofaz urged Suleiman to help persuade the faction to hold its fire.

“I will make Gen. Suleiman aware of our concerns about the continuing firing of the Qassam rockets against our territory so that he can use his influence” to try to restore the calm, Mofaz said ahead of the meeting.

“The Palestinian Authority is doing nothing. It is nonexistent,” said Mofaz, adding that “we must therefore do everything necessary to assure our security.” At a meeting on Tuesday with his top lieutenants Mofaz had reportedly warned that Hamas was likely to return to full-scale violence ahead of the Jan. 25 election.

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ Damascus-based overall leader, said earlier this month that the truce would not be renewed at the end of the year as “our people are surrounded and are preparing for a new round of conflict.” Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Beth internal security service, told the meeting with Mofaz that the weakening of Abbas’ Fatah movement would diminish its security services’ ability to stop attacks.

Fatah has been riven by divisions to such an extent that faction rebels have submitted a rival list of candidates to the official slate which will compete against each other on Jan. 25. Hamas has been trailing Fatah in the polls but won control of three major West Bank municipalities in local elections last week, in areas which had traditionally been Fatah strongholds.

In events on the ground, a local Hamas leader was shot dead in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Medics said Zayed Mussa, 28, was killed in exchanges during the course of an Israeli incursion. The army confirmed a gunman had been killed, saying a firearm and two magazine clips had been found on his body.

— With input from agencies