Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged Israel not to release jailed Hamas legislators as part of a deal to free an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip, reported dpa.
According to the Israeli newspaper, Abbas threatened to dismantle the Palestinian Authority (PA) if Israel did release them. It said the threat was delivered to the head of the Israeli army's central command by senior Abbas aide Hussein al-Sheikh. The daily gave no source.
Al-Sheikh vehemently denied the story and told the Palestinian Maan news agency that the PA was currently receiving legal advice regarding suing the journalist "who made up this lie about the president."
He said the Ha'aretz story was "manufactured by elements who want to discredit the PA and exacerbate the crisis between Hamas and Fatah," Maan reported.
Abbas has previously publicly demanded that Israel free all Palestinians held in its jails.
Hamas and Abbas' Fatah organization have been at loggerheads since the former triumphed in the January 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Since then, they have been fighting, often literally, for political control over the Palestinian areas.
Tensions between the two movements boiled over in June 2007, when Hamas militants routed security forces loyal to Abbas in the Gaza Strip and seized sole control of the enclave.
Abbas responded by dismantling the Hamas-Fatah unity government and dismissing Hamas leader Ismail Haniya from his post of prime minister.
Israel arrested dozens of Hamas legislators and ministers after three militant movements, led by Hamas, snatched Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid launched from the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006.
Shalit is currently being held by Hamas in the salient, and the Islamist movement is demanding the release of 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails, in return for setting him free.
The Hamas demand includes 450 specific names, but Israel has approved freeing only 70 of them.
The Israeli daily said Abbas fears the release of senior Hamas officials in exchange for Shalit would strengthen the Islamic organization in the West Bank, currently dominated by Fatah.
In its report however, Ha'aretz quoted "an Israeli source well-versed in what is happening in the PA" as saying that publication of Abbas' threat was liable to discredit him in the eyes of many of his constituents.
Abbas was elected president in January 2005, winning 62.3 per cent of the vote. Hamas however did not put forward a candidate in that poll, and Abbas' popularity has in the interim wavered, especially after Hamas easily defeated Fatah in the legislative elections.
In March a poll even showed Hamas leader Haniya defeating him in a presidential contest.
But Abbas' ratings have recently begun to climb, and a June survey conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research showed him winning 52.1 per cent of the vote if presidential elections were held now, as opposed to 39.5 per cent for Haniya.
But over half the respondents in the same poll - 51.4 per cent - said they were "not satisfied" or "not satisfied at all" with Abbas' performance as president.
Abbas had also frequently threatened to resign the presidency, but has so far not carried out his threat. dpa jab ok ch