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nzherald.co.nz Article: "Abbas isolated over war crimes stance

GAZA CITY - Hamas leaders yesterday launched an unprecedented attack against President Mahmoud Abbas, saying they no longer consider him a Palestinian after he agreed to suspend efforts to go after Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The harsh verbal assault is likely to undermine attempts at reconciliation between the Western-backed Abbas and his Islamic militant Hamas rivals, who control the Gaza Strip.

Syria abruptly postponed Abbas' planned visit to Damascus in what appeared to be the first diplomatic fallout from his decision to suspend a campaign to push for war crimes prosecutions in connection with January's Gaza war.

A United Nations report alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the three-week offensive in Gaza, a charge both deny.

The United States exerted pressure to delay the vote, apparently to keep the hope of renewed Mideast negotiations alive.

Israel's Prime Minister warned last week that pursuing war crimes charges would sabotage efforts to restart peace talks.

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva decided last week to put off a vote on the report for six months, rather than refer it to the UN General Assembly immediately for possible action.

Abdullah Abdullah, a politician in Abbas' Fatah movement, said yesterday the Palestinian diplomats had been urged by 'certain friendly countries' to put off the vote.

The decision sparked outrage across a wide swath of Palestinian society.

In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said yesterday Abbas and others involved in the decision should be shunned. 'We don't consider them Palestinians or representatives of the Palestinian people,' he said.

Hamas drove Abbas' forces out of Gaza in 2007, leaving him in control of only the West Bank. Repeated reconciliation efforts have failed, complicating peace efforts with Israel.

Egyptian mediators have asked Hamas and Fatah to return to Cairo for another round of talks this month, and it appeared Hamas was using the backlash against Abbas as leverage.

'I ask how the different parties can sit at the same table given this situation? How can the proper environment be created, given this unprecedented renunciation, this sacrifice of the martyrs' blood and our people's rights?' Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, said yesterday.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, several hundred protesters marched, calling for the resignation of those who took the decision.

- AP"