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Hamas warns of "unprecedented" sanctions Abbas threatens against Gaza

Xinhua, April 27, 2017 Adjust font size:

Islamic Hamas movement warned on Thursday of the "unprecedented" measures Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah Party threaten to carry out against the Gaza Strip.

Khalil al-Hayyah, deputy chairman of Hamas poliburo in the coastal enclave, said in an e-mailed press statement that the Gaza Strip is a barrel of explosive powder that would explode at any time "in the face of Abbas and the Israeli occupation."

"President Abbas can't put more pressure on the Gaza Strip because it would explode at his face and in all directions," said al-Hayyah. "Hamas can never be pressured or blackmailed. It will keep being patient and continue to struggle."

Abbas and his Fatah Party earlier warned Hamas that "unprecedented measures" will be soon taken against the Gaza Strip to oblige Hamas rulers to end more than ten years of internal division.

They said measures that would directly hurt the daily life of more than 2 million people of the enclave are to be immediately executed if Hamas refuses to hand over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority.

"The President (Abbas) will certainly fail to put pressure on Hamas or on the populations of the Gaza Strip, because Gaza has never kneeled to the occupation or any other power on earth," said al-Hayyah.

Meanwhile, Hamas movement also said in an emailed leaflet that an earlier Israeli attack on Gaza "can never force Gaza armed resistance to stop their struggle against ending the occupation and liberating the occupied territories."

Earlier, Israeli tanks shelled on eastern Gaza Strip in response to a shooting attack by Gaza gunmen on an Israeli army force patrolling the border area.

Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, after weeks of fighting with Abbas' security forces.

Since then, an internal political and geographical division over administrative, financial and security issues has remained between the two sides despite a series of Arab and international mediations. Enditem