Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly Cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned against any international rush to recognise a Palestinian government due to be announced under a unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Islamist groups.

Israel and the West classify Hamas as a terrorist organisation and have no official dealings with the movement, which advocates the destruction of the Jewish state.

But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party signed a reconciliation deal with Hamas in April, said a unity government due to be announced today would be comprised of ministers without political affiliation, a status that could ease the way for Western engagement.

“I call on all responsible elements in the international community not to rush to recognise a Palestinian government which has Hamas as part of it and which is dependent on Hamas,” Netanyahu, who has said such an administration would be a front for the Islamist group, toldhis Cabinet.

Abbas says unity government to be announced today

“Hamas is a terrorist organisation that calls for Israel’s destruction, and the international community must not embrace it.

“That would not bolster peace, it would strengthen terror,” Netanyahu said in public remarks at the Cabinet meeting.

Israel froze US-brokered peace talks with Abbas when the unity deal was announced on April 23 after numerous unsuccessful attempts at Palestinian reconciliation since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces in fighting in 2007.

Abbas said on Saturday that Israel “informed us, they would boycott us if we announced the government”. Netanyahu, in his brief statement yesterday, made no reference to any Israeli sanctions.

Israel has withheld tax revenues from Abbas’s aid-dependent Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, in retaliation for his signing in April of international conventions and treaties after Israel reneged on a promised release of Palestinian prisoners.