Palestinian government warns Hamas to stop attacks

The Palestinian government directed a strongly-worded message at Hamas, warning it not to continue implementing military operations like the suicide attack at Gosh Katif in the Gaza Strip last Thursday.

The secretary general of the Palestinian Authority, El-Tayeib Abd El-Rahim, said, "We are blaming Hamas for this work, and we will strongly confront every attempt to topple the peace agreement as long as they strongly want to topple it."

He added that Hamas' behavior concerning this matter is irresponsible and unaware of the Palestinian national interest, pointing out that such operations aim at nothing but preventing Israeli troop withdrawal.

Following the house arrest of the spiritual leader of Hamas, a faxed statement by the military wing of the organization issued a warning to the Palestinian government warning it against oppressive measures against Palestinians and threatening reprisal.