By DPA
Palestine : Members of the Islamic Hamas movement have threatened to depose Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the coming months, saying Abbas “will fall in the autumn like leaves”.
The fierce attack was made Monday by two hardline Hamas officials, Nezzar Rayyan and Mushier al-Massri, during a rally for the movement in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabaliya.
The Hamas rally was to support “the armed resistance” against the occupation forces, and to celebrate the killing of an Israeli soldier earlier Monday, according to a Hamas invitation to the rally.
“In the autumn, God willing, we will pray in al-Muqata’a (Abbas’ compound) in Ramallah as we have done at his compound in Gaza,” said Rayyan, referring to Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza from Fatah forces loyal to Abbas in mid-June.
Rayyan’s threat came despite a fresh confirmation by Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, that the movement will not take control of West Bank by force.
But a Hamas lawmaker, Mushier al-Massri, said that Abbas “lacks legitimacy and authorisation from the Palestinian people”, adding that US President George W. Bush’s “friends will be slapped”.
The Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, will participate in a US-sponsored peace conference in November to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Bush called for the meeting in part to strengthen Abbas’ more moderate Fatah movement after the Gaza takeover.
Al-Massri addressed thousands of Hamas supporters, saying that the rally “was meant to show that Hamas is stuck to the resistance and will not give it up”.
The rally came as Israel threatened Monday to sever its economic and infrastructural ties with the Gaza Strip if rocket attacks from the area continued.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Abbas reacting to the Hamas statements, said: “the place of Rayyan and al-Massri is the insane asylum.
“They are nationally and mentally disordered like all Hamas gang … their only weapon is the threats and insults,” Abed Rabbo said.