RAMALLAH, 1 November 2007 — Hamas leaders in the West Bank denied yesterday any intention to seize the territory, as threatened by a senior colleague in the movement that controls the Gaza Strip. “This is against our policy and against the policy of the Hamas movement,” Farraj Rumana, one of the top Hamas leaders not arrested in the West Bank, told a news conference in Ramallah.
“This was a personal comment made in haste. We want to declare that we reject and do not accept any kind of incitement against either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority,” said Rumana.
He was speaking at Hamas’ first news conference in the West Bank since the movement seized control of the Gaza Strip and routed loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in mid-June. “Abbas will fall like the autumn leaves,” Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader in Gaza, had said two days ago. “We will pray this autumn in the muqtada,” he said, referring to Abbas’ leadership compound in Ramallah.
Another Hamas leader in the West Bank, Hussein Abu Qweik, said the party had met Palestinian security forces many times, and confirmed that Hamas would not repeat the Gaza takeover in the West Bank. Yet he denied any dissent within Hamas in the two Palestinian territories, which have been de facto separated by the Gaza takeover. “Hamas is united in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as elsewhere. Such comments from here and there are a kind of political game,” said Abu Qweik.
