RAMALLAH, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday accused both Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement of working on isolating the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

    Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, told Voice of Palestine Radio that "I believe that Israel and Hamas have an interest to keep the Gaza Strip isolated from the West Bank."

    "All the ground measures, which are taken by Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, prove that the movement wants to completely isolate Gaza from the West Bank, and this is what Israel actually wants," said Abed Rabbo.

    The Islamic movement took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June, 2007 following weeks of bloody fighting with security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. It routed Abbas forces and took control of the enclave.

    Rabbo accused Hamas movement of trying to create a private entity to keep the Gaza Strip under its control forever by escaping from a national dialogue and setting up an unjust fanatic Islamic rule in the enclave.

    Meanwhile, Rabbo condemned an early statement of the prime minister Ismail Haneya of the deposed Hamas-led government, in which he said that he wants to raze the biggest security compound in Gaza City and turn the place into a huge shopping mall.

    "Hamas wants to remove from the Palestinian memory everything reminds the people in Gaza of the PLO, and it also wants to make commercial investments in Gaza to strengthen its budget," said Abed Rabbo.

    Haneya, who is a senior Hamas leader had repeatedly denied that his movement has plans to turn the Gaza Strip into an Islamic emirate, calling on Abbas to start unconditioned national dialogue.