GAZA CITY, 22 July 2007 — Hamas said yesterday it was replacing Gaza’s defunct courts with a legal committee consisting of a Shariah expert and warned Tony Blair his credibility as the new international Middle East peace envoy would be damaged if he ignored the organization.

A spokesman for the Hamas force policing Gaza said that aside from the Shariah expert, the legal committee would include a military court lawyer and the head of the main prison.

The group said it would not use the committee to impose Shariah in the Strip, seized by its members last month from its archrival Fatah.

Ali Khashan, justice minister in the West Bank-based caretaker government installed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the Gaza takeover, denounced Hamas’ decision. “These steps are illegal,” Khashan said.

The legal system in Gaza stopped functioning after Hamas took over the area last month, with Abbas ordering judges, prosecutors and police to stop cooperating with Gaza’s new rulers.

Even before the takeover, the judicial system was overburdened and seen as largely ineffective. Many Palestinians instead resorted to tribal law, an ancient custom in which clan leaders get together and negotiate punishments for various offenses committed against family members, from theft to rape and murder.

The three-member legal committee will now deal with hundreds of criminal complaints that would normally have been referred to the courts, said Islam Shahwan, spokesman of Hamas’ Executive Force, the group policing Gaza.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the committee would not be used to impose Shariah, but said many Gaza residents want to use Muslim laws to resolve their disputes. Islamic law has long been applied in Palestinian courts, particularly in regulating inheritance, marriage and divorce.

“Even in the (old) courts, many people used Islamic law with the consent of both parties to resolve their disputes, and the courts would approve such rulings,” he said.

Abu Zuhri said the committee is a temporary alternative, until the courts start functioning again.

Issam Younis, head of the Gaza-based human rights group Mezan, said alternatives to the existing courts are unacceptable. He blamed the Abbas-installed government in the West Bank for ordering the courts to stop operating.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, a former Palestinian foreign minister, meanwhile said: “We warn the new envoy (Blair) that any attempt to marginalize the Hamas movement will cost him his credibility.”

The former British prime minister is expected in Israel and the West Bank early next week in his maiden visit since his appointment as envoy of the Middle East Quartet — the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

— Additional input from agencies