RAMALLAH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Islamic Hamas movement on Saturday for lightening its tunnels in Gaza around the clock despite a severe electricity shortage.
"While there is a severe electricity crisis in Gaza, Hamas lightens its underground tunnels and the homes of its officials around the clock," Abbas told a group of notables from East Jerusalem at his office in Ramallah.
Abbas said he won't end the unprecedented harsh measures taken against Hamas in Gaza a few months ago, unless "Hamas hands over the Gaza Strip to the current consensus Palestinian government."
Hamas, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, earlier accused the government and Abbas of turning their backs on the Gazans by helping Israel's more than 10 years of blockade imposed on the impoverished coastal enclave.
In March, Hamas formed an administrative committee to run the daily life of Gaza, a move that has angered Abbas who insists that Hamas should dissolve the committee and hand over ruling the Gaza Strip to his consensus government.
"Some parties are concerned to keep the internal split going on in order to prevent the establishment of any independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," Abbas said said to his guests from Jerusalem.
"Abbas' insistence to keep punishing the Gazan people means that he insists on isolating Gaza from the West Bank," Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an e-mailed press statement.
"The tough measures that he takes against the poor people in Gaza have caused catastrophic consequences on the populations and the details of the populations daily life," Qassem noted.
