Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iran provides support to Islamic Palestinian groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Palestinian factional official said on Saturday.

    "Iran supports Hamas, the Islamic Jihad movement and other Palestinian groups and this is not a secret," said Samir Ghousha, a leader from the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front.

    Hamas controls Gaza Strip since last year after it routed the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who consolidated the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) rule in West Bank while Hamas Islamists tightened their grip on Gaza.

    To support Egypt's efforts to settle the split between Gaza and West Bank, Ghousha said his movement asked Egypt to send security advisers and monitors to Gaza Strip to help reforming and restructuring the security forces there away from Hamas' criteria.

    Ghousha says his movement still welcomes the Egyptian proposal to send Arab forces to Gaza. But since Hamas rejects the idea, he said that Egyptian security experts may resolve the crisis among the security services.

    Hamas says that the security services, loyal to Abbas, tried to block its rule which was gained by winning parliamentary elections in 2006 and this has made the Islamic movement forcibly takeover the Gaza Strip.