GAZA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement said Wednesday that the Israeli government wants to "sabotage the Palestinian reconciliation and keep the Palestinian people divided."
Hamas's remarks came in response to Israel's Tuesday official statement, which said that it will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes the Islamic Hamas movement, a week after a Palestinian reconciliation deal was signed.
Israel said in the statement that it would acknowledge the agreement reached by the Fatah party and Hamas "only under certain conditions."
"The Israeli conditions are failed and poor attempts to sabotage the efforts to achieve internal Palestinian reconciliation," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
He said "Israel is the only party that would get damaged in case internal Palestinian division is ended," adding that "damaging the Palestinian reconciliation is certainly an Israeli high interest."
Hamas movement has repeatedly insisted that achieving reconciliation, ending internal division and achieving unity "would give a real power to the Palestinians and weaken the occupation," the spokesman said.
The Fatah party, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, signed last week in Cairo, Egypt with Hamas a landmark agreement to return the civilian power in the besieged enclave of Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority.
Under the deal brokered by Egypt, the Palestinian consensus government under Fatah will have full control of the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas since 2007, by December 1.
Nabil Abu Rdineh, an aide to Abbas said in an official statement that what has been agreed upon in Cairo last week "goes in the right direction, and any Israeli opposition would never influence the Palestinian official position to carry on with it."
