Hamas Won’t Join Abbas’ Cabinet

GAZA CITY — The Islamic militant group Hamas rejected an invitation from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to join his Cabinet, a Hamas spokesman said Monday.

Abbas, facing public pressure to curb growing lawlessness in Palestinian areas, last week offered militants a place in his government to foster a smooth evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip beginning in August.

“Hamas has decided to reject the offer of [Abbas’] Fatah movement to join a national unity government,” said Hamas spokesman Mushir Masri. “Forming a unity government at this late time will not be useful.”

He said the decision was made after a series of consultations within Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction but commands considerable grass-roots support in the Gaza Strip.

Bringing in Hamas would help Abbas maintain order during the pullout and avoid a security vacuum afterward.

It would also help ensure that Hamas remained committed to a truce that Abbas and Israel agreed to in February by giving it a role in decision-making. Resurgent violence has frayed the cease-fire in recent weeks.

Masri had previously said he considered the invitation a ploy to avoid a commitment to hold quick parliamentary elections, in which Hamas was poised to mount a serious challenge to Fatah.

Israel has condemned the idea, which would mark the first time armed groups have been included in a Palestinian Cabinet.

Israel is concerned that Hamas will try to seize control of Gaza after its planned evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements there and four of the 120 in the West Bank. It has vowed that the pullout would not proceed under fire.

Israel and the United States have demanded that Abbas disarm and dismantle militant groups as part of the U.S.-backed “road map” to peace and a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri called for forming a committee of representatives from all Palestinian factions to work out a plan to deal with Israel’s withdrawal.

Settler leaders met Monday in Gaza to draw up a code of conduct for opposing the pullout. Pro-settler lawmaker Effi Eitam told Israel Radio, “Attempts to physically harm people, to target roads are unacceptable. They are forbidden both by the law and by Jewish tradition.”