Abbas blames Hamas for bombing Fatah leaders' properties

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday accused the Islamic Hamas movement of carrying out Friday's bombing attacks against properties of his Fatah Party's leaders in Gaza.

"Those who committed the bombing attacks are the leaders of Hamas and I refuse their decision to investigate the bombing incidents," Abbas told a rally in Ramallah to commemorate the tenth death anniversary of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Fatah Party's leaders had earlier cancelled a rally to commemorate Arafat in the wake of bombing attacks Friday that targeted Fatah leaders' cars, houses, and the stage prepared for the rally.

Fatah accused Hamas militants of being behind the bombing attacks to prevent them from holding the rally, while Hamas leaders strongly condemned the bombings in an e-mailed press statement and formed a committee to investigate the incident.

"Hamas doesn't want reconciliation. It regretted the reached understandings of forming a unity government and refused to hand over control on Gaza and its crossing points to this government," Xinhua quoted Abbas as saying.

He stressed that the incidents "would certainly obstruct the process of reconstruction and the problem of thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip".