by Saud Abu Ramadan

    GAZA/RAMALLAH, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Although leaders of the secular Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday confirmed that Hamas would let its members to travel to the West Bank to join the movement's sixth General Assembly, leaders of the Islamic movement in Gaza denied.

    Around 1,700 Fatah members are scheduled to join their sixth movement's conference due to be held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Aug. 4, to elect new leaders and members of the central committee and the revolutionary council. Among them, 400 are from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

    Hamas leaders conditioned that the movement would lift the travel ban on the 400 Gaza Fatah members, if Abbas security forces in the West Bank release around 800 Hamas members imprisoned in Abbas jails. Hamas leaders have clearly informed Egyptian mediators on their conditions.

    Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Gaza Fatah official announced that Hamas will allow Gaza Fatah party members to travel to join their movement's congress. He told Xinhua that Fatah members will leave Gaza Wednesday noon after Hamas responded to Arab pressures to lift the travel ban.

    "Egypt and Syria told Abbas that Hamas had agreed to let Fatah people to travel," Abu al-Najja said. "There will be dangerous consequences if Hamas prevented our people from traveling to Bethlehem."

    However, an Islamic Hamas movement spokesman denied on Wednesday that his movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip, will allow Fatah members to travel to Bethlehem to join the movement's sixth general assembly.

    "There is nothing new in the issue and the reports that Hamas has agreed to let Fatah partisans out are untrue," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas.

    He reiterated that Fatah members could leave Gaza if pro-Abbas forces freed all jailed Hamas supporters in the West Bank and sent blank passports to Hamas' administration to help the Islamic movement issues new passports for the Gazans.

    Meanwhile, Gaza Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Zahar had said earlier that Hamas won't respond to the pressures to lift the travel ban on Fatah activists, stressing that Hamas prisoners in the West Bank should be released.

    "It has to be clear to Fatah leaders and to everyone that if Fatah movement is seeking a free access of movement for its members in the Gaza Strip, no single Hamas member should be staying in the West Bank jails," said al-Zahar.

    He denied that his movement is seeking to undermine holding Fatah General Assembly, which has not been held for 20 years, adding "We know the results of this conference in advance, and we will not let this conference to be used against us in the West Bank and Gaza."

    Salah al-Bardaweel, a senior Hamas leader has also said earlier that his movement has informed Egypt, which mediates a dialogue between the two rival groups, that no Fatah member can travel from Gaza to join the general assembly in Bethlehem.

    "We sent a written letter to Egypt clearly saying that Fatah members can not travel unless all Hamas prisoners in the West Bankare released," said al-Bardaweel. Russia, Syria and Turkey had also held contacts with Hamas to lift the travel ban on Fatah members.

    Feuds between Fatah and Hamas are not only on lifting the travel ban on Gaza Fatah members, they held seven rounds on direct bilateral inter-dialogue in Cairo since March, but they failed to overcome basic differences related to ending the current rift between Gaza and the West Bank.

    Meanwhile, senior Fatah leader Nabil Shaath stressed that the movement's general assembly must be held with the presence of the 400 Gaza Fatah members, adding "it is not reasonable to hold the historic conference only with the members who manage to attend."

    "We are not talking about a strategic workshop or a panel of discussion, we are talking about a substantial conference that will decide the fate and the future of Fatah movement," said Shaath, who also said that he supports the release of Hamas prisoners from West Bank jails.

    Hamas had completely seized control of the Gaza Strip following weeks of street fighting with Abbas security forces and Fatah militants in June 2007. The Islamic movement routed Abbas security forces. The West Bank remained under Abbas and Fatah control.

    "The principle of not allowing Gaza Fatah members to travel will have negative influence on the dialogue and will also dedicate to the current rift between Gaza and the West Bank," said Shaath.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts