HOLY LAND: HAMAS ACCUSES THE WEST OF PLAYING WITH THEIR 'TRIBUTE' PAYMENTS

Hamas accuses West of playing politics with aid
by Adel Zaanoun

GAZA CITY (AFP) - The Islamists of Hamas accused the West on Tuesday of playing politics with Palestinian aid after it resumed assistance to the government in the West Bank while their Gaza bastion remains under Israeli blockade.

The United States and Europe restored direct aid to the Palestinians on Monday in a show of support for president Mahmud Abbas, who set up an emergency government when his Hamas rivals seized power in Gaza last week after days of brutal bloodletting.

"By announcing their political and financial support for the Palestinian Authority, the West is backing an illegimate government," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

EU and US support for the government of prime minister Salam Fayyad was "an attempt to manipulate the Palestinian people and distance it from Hamas," he charged, adding that the strategy would not work.

Hamas's seizure of Gaza after vicious street battles with loyalists of Abbas's secular
Fatah faction that left more than 110 people dead has driven a deep wedge in Palestinian society.

Abbas's government is based in his West Bank stronghold while Hamas is in control of Gaza, a tiny strip of land whose impoverished people rely on goods from outside but are now sealed off from the rest of the world by Israel.

The Palestinian Authority insisted it remains in full control, "administratively and morally," of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but the divide has dimmed hopes of the creation of a future independent state.

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1) Hamas accuses West of playing politics with aid