Abbas sets date for referendum

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, stepping up a power struggle with the Hamas-led government, announced yesterday a July 26 referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel.

Hours before the moderate leader issued his decree, Hamas formally ended a 16-month truce by firing more than 25 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in response to the killing of seven people on a Gaza beach during Israeli shelling on Friday.

Hopes for peacemaking appeared even more remote, with Abbas and the Islamist group that defeated his Fatah movement in a January election locked in political confrontation and Hamas and Israel on a fast track to battle.

"As chairman of the PLO executive committee and president of the Palestinian Authority, I have decided to exercise my constitutional right and duty to hold a referendum over the document of national agreement," Abbas said in a decree read by an aide.

The manifesto, penned by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, calls for a Palestinian state, alongside Israel, on all of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Opinion polls show most Palestinians back the proposal. Israel calls it a non-starter.

Rejecting Abbas's announcement as a "declaration of a coup against the government", Mushir al-Masri, a leading Hamas legislator, urged Palestinians to boycott the vote.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said he would meet Abbas in Gaza later in the day "to explain to him the dangers of the referendum, which could cause historical divisions among the Palestinian people".

Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, has accused Abbas of using the manifesto to try to engineer the downfall of its government, which has struggled with a Western aid embargo and growing disorder.

Palestinians will be asked on July 26 to vote "yes" or "no" on the question: "Do you agree with the document of national agreement - the prisoner's document?" Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim said.

In the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinian mourners wept with seven-year-old Huda Ghalya as she kneeled to kiss her dead father before he, her mother and three siblings were buried.

The five, including a four-month-old, a three-year-old and a 10-year-old, were among the seven killed during a seaside outing on Friday after Israeli gunboats shelled the area to curb cross-border rocket fire. Twenty people were also wounded.

"Please do not leave me alone," said Huda, who had been swimming in the Mediterranean when the blast tore up the beach.

In a televised speech in which he announced the referendum, Abbas said Israel, ignoring his hand "extended in peace", had committed "a horrible, dangerous and ugly massacre".

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, expressing a willingness to meet Abbas, has said the Palestinians must dismantle militant groups, as stipulated by a US-backed peace "road map", if peacemaking is to resume. Israel has failed to carry out its commitments under the plan.

A spokesman for Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades said they had resumed attacks against Israel in response to the shelling. The Israeli army said 16 Qassam rockets and 10 mortar bombs were fired at Israel, causing no casualties or damage.

Israel Radio said Defence Minister Amir Peretz had sent a message to Abbas voicing "deep regret at the deaths of innocent people".

Israel's army said one of its shells may have hit the beach by accident, but it was still investigating. Army chief Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz planned to make a statement on the incident later in the day.

Hamas has abstained from striking in Israel since a truce was announced in early 2005. Israeli officials said the group has been helping other militant factions to carry out daily rocket launchings from Gaza, territory Israel quit last year.