Abbas to unveil cabinet as Hamas tightens Gaza grip

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Palestinian Hamas supporters stand on an armoured vehicle captured in fighting from Fatah force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a rally by the group in Gaza City Friday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 16 (AFP): A new Western-backed Palestinian government was set to take office Saturday, sealing the divide of the Palestinians as Hamas fighters tightened their grip on power in the Gaza Strip.
President Mahmud Abbas, bolstered by Western and Arab backing in the deadly standoff with the Islamists, named a new moderate prime minister to head his emergency cabinet Friday but his rule is likely to be limited to the West Bank.
In the Gaza Strip, masked black-clad Hamas fighters roamed the streets of what is now an Islamic enclave sandwiched between
Israel and Egypt following their bloody capture of the territory Friday.
Fatah-linked fighters took revenge in the West Bank, ransacking dozens of offices linked to Hamas including charities, an Islamic school and local television and radio in the city of Nablus.
And a commander of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade called on Hamas members in the West Bank to turn their weapons in to the Palestinian Authority, saying it was now a banned organisation.
With Gaza sealed off from the outside world by Israel, there are fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished strip of land although life was gradually returning to normal, with market stalls open and cars about.
On Friday, looters had taken to the streets, seizing everything from computers to flowerpots and kitchen sinks from the fallen security strongholds of Abbas's Fatah party and his bullet-scarred presidential compound on the Mediterranean seafront.
The capture of Gaza by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hamas has set off alarm bells in the Jewish state and the international community, further dashing prospects for peace in the Middle East.
The move has effectively split the Palestinians into two geographically divided and separately ruled entities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, making their aspirations of an independent state an ever more distant dream.
Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal said his Islamic Resistance Movement was not however seeking to take power in the Palestinian territories and vowed to cooperate with Abbas.
"No one questions his legitimacy. He is an elected president. We are going to cooperate with him in the national interest," Meshaal said at a Damascus press conference.
The US State Department declared its full support for the Abbas-declared government and hinted of stepped up security aid amid fears of alleged destabilisation activities by Iran and Syria.
Washington has watched helplessly as moderate Middle East regimes from Baghdad to Beirut, and now Gaza, have been dragged into cycles of bloodshed, while its arch-foes in Tehran and Damascus strengthen their grip in the region.
Hamas, which swept to victory in 2006 polls but is branded a terror outfit by Israel and the West, overran Gaza after Abbas sacked the unity government and declared a state of emergency in a bid to avert all-out civil war.
Hamas's action was branded a "military coup" by Abbas, who tasked independent Salam Fayyad with forming an emergency government that could pave the way for an end to a crippling Western boycott imposed when the Islamists first took power in early 2006.
A senior Israeli official said it was willing to normalise ties with the Palestinians if a new government headed by Fayyad recognises the Jewish state's right to exist, renounces violence and abides by past agreements.
But Hamas's sacked premier Ismail Haniya has vowed to carry on in government.
Meeting at crisis talks in Cairo, Arab League foreign ministers urged both Hamas and Abbas to step back from the brink, condemning the "criminal acts" in the Gaza Strip.
They stressed "the need to respect the legitimacy of the Palestinian nation headed by Mahmud Abbas and respect elected institutions, including the Legislative Council," where Hamas has a majority.
The White House voiced its backing for the embattled Abbas and said it will not turn its back on Palestinians who oppose Hamas.
"No one wants to abandon the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in the Gaza Strip to the mercies of a terrorist organisation," spokesman Scott Stanzel said.