Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Gaza-based Hamas spokesman on Tuesday rejected statements made by some of the Islamic movement's senior members in the West Bank town of Nablus, which condemned Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in mid-June of 2007.A number of Hamas leaders in Nablus had earlier slammed the Hamas takeover of Gaza, which happened last June after Hamas militants routed security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of rival Fatah movement.

    Several senior Hamas members, who were in the Palestinian Authority prisons, showed up at a news conference broadcast by Abbas' official television, calling on Hamas "to recognize the legitimacy of President Abbas and his authority."

    Ayman Taha, a Gaza-based Hamas spokesman, told reporters that "it is obvious that pressure has been exerted on those individuals by Abbas security forces to make such an announcement." "Their position and statements are personal points of view, and these views are not committing the movement towards anything because they represent only personal views and not the movement either in Nablus or in Gaza."

    In the televised news conference, Moussa al-Kharaz, a senior Hamas official, said, "we condemn the military settlement that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip and other things that happened in June 2007."

    Another two senior Hamas members, Zuhiar Lubada and Ramez Salha, were also speaking at the news conference after being released by pro-Abbas security forces.

    In a bid to end Fatah's crackdown against Hamas in the West Bank, al-Kharaz revealed an immunity agreement by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Hamas activists who would like to hand over their arms.

    "Anyone who surrenders will not stay in the PA's headquarters for more than 30-40 minutes," said al-Kharaz, while calling on West Bank security forces to stop political detention of Hamas members.

    "We hope this development will usher in a new era and we call for recognizing the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas," al-Kharaz said.

    Immediately after the news conference, Hamas movement in Gaza urged its West Bank members not to hand over their weapons and said al-Kharaz didn't represent the Islamic movement. The call also appeared as a flash on Pal-media.net, a pro-Hamas news website.

    After last June's deadly infighting, Abbas sacked the Hamas-led Palestinian government, which was rejected by Hamas. As a result, the geographically-divided Palestinian territories was further politically split -- with Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip and Abbas' Fatah running the West Bank.