Special report: Internal situation in Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas watches (L) as Abdel-Rahim Mallouh (3rd L), a top official of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was released from an Israeli prison on Friday, is greeted by family members in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 20, 2007, in this picture released by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO).(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    RAMALLAH, July 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), newly released from Israeli prison, condemned the Hamas Islamists on Saturday for seizing the Gaza Strip, calling for early elections to overcome the crisis.

    Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, Abdel Rahim Malouh said "What Hamas has done is completely condemned and should not have happened."

    His leftist movement will look for serious dialogue after Hamas reviews the mistake it made and agrees on elections and a new unity government, Malouh said.

    But he admitted that early elections can not be held without "minimum understanding between Hamas and Fatah and both sides' readiness to recognize the results of the polls." "I asked Hamas leadership to retreat and Fatah leaders to maintain the Palestinian people's interest," he said. Malouh, freed Friday after three and half years in prison, also expressed discontent with the condition of his leftist party and other factions, blaming it on the escalation of Hamas-Fatah power struggle.

    Malouh is among the 255 prisoners released on Friday by Israel as a goodwill gesture aimed at bolstering President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party after Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in mid June.