GAZA, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement on Monday night called for holding presidential and legislative elections to choose a new leadership for the Palestinian people.
The movement said in an official emailed press statement that Hamas calls on the Palestinian people to go for holding the general Palestinian elections and electing a new Palestinian National Council.
"The most important thing is to elect a new leadership to achieve unity, bear the responsibilities and sponsor the internal Palestinian reconciliation to end more than a decade of internal split," said the statement.
Hamas, meanwhile, condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' remarks on accusing the movement of being behind attacking the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamadallah and the Palestinian security chief Majid Faraj.
Hamas said that Abbas "adopts positions of tension that burn bridges, promote division and strike the unity of the Palestinian people."
"What Abbas is doing is not targeting Hamas, but an attempt to undermine the chances of advancing the national project, achieving unity and strengthening the separation of the West Bank from Gaza," the movement said.
Abbas has earlier on Monday accused Hamas of being responsible for bombing the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza last week.
"Hamas is behind the attack on the convoy as a result of the reconciliation talks we had with them ... if the assassination succeeded, it would have disastrous results and lead to the outbreak of a Palestinian civil war," Abbas said at a meeting of the executive committees of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and his Fatah Party's central committee.
He promised that what happened "will not pass."
Abbas strongly slammed Hamas, saying the movement must bear all the responsibilities of the Gaza Strip or to hand over his entire administration, including the security file to the Palestinian Authority.
An explosion occurred when the convoy of al-Hamdallah accompanied by Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj entered the Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint on last Tuesday.
Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that unknown assailants targeted the convoy by placing a roadside bomb as soon as his convoy entered the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip.
Despite the incident, Hamdallah completed his scheduled plan and arrived at the headquarters of a water treatment plant in northern Gaza Strip.
Following his rapid participation in the opening ceremony of the plant project, Hamdallah and Faraj left the Gaza Strip amid heavy security measures heading to the West Bank.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip since mid-2007, has condemned the incident and vowed to conduct investigations to prosecute the perpetrators.
The incident cast more negative shadows on the already faltering reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas, which has been under Egyptian auspices for several years.
