'Hamas does not intend to harm Abbas, Fatah leaders'

By JPOST.COM STAFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Following Fatah reports that Hamas was planning attacks against its leaders, and specifically PA President Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen], Hamas spokesman Rivhi Rantisi denied the claim in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday morning. "Hamas has no intention of harming Fatah leaders and especially not Abu Mazen." Rantisi said. claiming that in fact, the opposite was true. "It is Fatah that is carrying out a massacre of Hamas people in the West Bank. Look at what happened in Kalkilya," he said. "In my opinion," he went on, "there has to be a response to Fatah's actions in the West Bank. There must be arrests in Gaza." Rantisi said that Hamas had asked Fatah for the immediate release of detainees "a thousand times."