Hamas called Thursday for reconciliation with supporters of rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted on pursuing “resistance” against Israel. The condition appeared to preclude any agreement with Abbas, who seeks a peace deal with Israel and whose moderate Fatah faction was not among the groups that backed the statement by eight Damascus-based radical Palestinian factions including Hamas. The call came days after Israel ended a devastating war against the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza that Palestinian officials say killed about 1,300 in the territory. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah by force in 2007 and Fatah set up a rival Palestinian government in the West Bank. It has been conducting peace talks with Israel for more than a year. The eight factions said they will reject any political reconciliation deals that hinder the “continuity of the resistance” against Israel, a condition Fatah is sure to reject. Israel had no immediate comment. The US and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group. It is sworn to Israel's destruction, a stance that has brought international efforts to isolate Gaza under its rule. Abbas' Prime Minister Salam Fayyad made an urgent plea for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, saying the alternative is a permanent rift that will destroy Palestinians' dreams for a state of their own. “The world would like to help us but everyone says that we should have a national unity government,” he said after meeting with donor country representatives in his West Bank office Thursday.. “The world wants to help us and we should help ourselves.” But Hamas leaders have been cool to any suggestions of power-sharing with Fatah in the aftermath of the war. While they were calling for national reconciliation, senior Hamas officials also insisted Thursday that Hamas have sole control over all international donations to rebuild Gaza after the 23-day war with Israel, saying Abbas's Fatah cannot be trusted to handle any of the aid. “We have a legitimate government in Gaza that came through a democratic choice, and it is working on the streets, and it is a legitimate body to receive the aid and to rebuild Gaza,” Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas official in Gaza, said. Earlier, Sami Khater, a member of the Damascus-based Hamas political leadership-in-exile, said Arab and international donations to aid Gaza should go directly to Hamas and be distributed through an independent Arab body which must supervise reconstruction. “Frankly, the funds shouldn't go to the Palestinian Authority because, according to previous experience, this authority cannot be trusted,” he said. Control over reconstruction funds would put huge sums of aid money expected to flood in from abroad at Hamas' fingertips and could also give the group a measure of international recognition. __
