Abbas condemns suicide bombing, Western aid threat

Abbas, on a visit to South Africa, also accused Israel of blocking peace and using the election victory by Hamas as an excuse for increased aggression against Palestinians.

Abbas said the suicide strike which killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement on Thursday would not help bring peace. Hamas defended the attack as legitimate resistance.

"The Palestinian Authority does not accept it. We condemn it and we don't think it will help the peace process. We want to live in peace and stability and security, side by side with the Israelis," Abbas told a news conference in Cape Town.

The suicide bombing by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas's own Fatah faction, was the first such attack in two months and the first by militants within Fatah since it was trounced by Hamas in elections in January.

Abbas's trip to South Africa precedes a visit by a South African delegation to the Palestinian territories next week when top officials are due to meet the Hamas-led government.

South Africa wants to raise its profile on the world diplomatic stage. Abbas said the Palestinian people looked to South Africa's victory over apartheid as inspiration for their own search for peace and self-determination.

Abbas said in a speech to the country's parliament in Cape Town that Israel was undermining the peace process and using "torture, siege, suffocation and confiscation of land" to reinforce its occupation of Palestinian territory.

EXCUSE FOR AGGRESSION

"It is unaceptable to use the victory of Hamas in the election...as an excuse to increase the Israeli aggression against our people and punish our people for its democratic choice," he said.

The hardline Islamist group won a landslide victory in January legislative polls against Abbas's Fatah movement.

Abbas said he and the Palestine Liberation Organisation remained committed to negotiating for peace, and criticised warnings from international mediators that the Hamas government's more hardline position could affect aid flows.

"The Palestinian people should not be punished because they have chosen democracy. Therefore there is no logic for some Western countries to cut off and stop funding the Palestinian people. The funds and the aid should continue," he said.

The "Quartet" of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- issued a statement in Brussels on Thursday noting "grave concern" over Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

It said Hamas's position would inevitably affect direct assistance to the Palestinian government and its ministries.

Abbas said Israel was determined to destroy the Palestinian Authority and was misleading the world in creating an impression that there was no Palestinian partner to negotiate with.

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