Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Monday called on Hamas to "clean" itself from people against Palestinian national principles.

    "We call on Hamas to clean itself from the terror and coup lords who altered the track of the national project and misled the national rights and contributed to destroying of the efforts to create an independent statehood," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a Fatah spokesman.

    "Currently, Hamas is unable to understand the Palestinian cause and it understands the authority as a power obtained through coup. What is going on in the Gaza Strip is a real crisis for Hamas," he added.

    Hamas controls the Gaza Strip since June 2007 after it routed pro-Abbas forces and ousted Fatah movement. Hamas said Gaza takeover was meant to prevent a plot by the Palestinian forces which refused to deal with the Islamic movement since it won January 2006 legislative elections.

    Following a beachside blast on July 25 in which a girl and five Hamas members were killed, Hamas launched crackdown on the secular Fatah, arresting leaders and dozens of Fatah supporters and shutting down civil institutions that Hamas considers are linked to Fatah.

    But Abdel Rahman insisted that Fatah "was innocent and did not involve in the blast," adding that the explosion might be a result of explosives mishandled by Hamas members, especially as the five victims were members of the Hamas armed wing.