Some 20 Palestinians were wounded yesterday in clashes between Fatah and Hamas supporters in the Gaza Strip.

Both organizations held processions after the evening prayers in the mosques, and clashed with each other in Rafah and Khan Yunis, after Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas called for early elections for the PA presidency and parliament.

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Speaking at the Muqata in Ramallah, Abbas asked the central elections committee to prepare for elections and to discuss a date with him. Until a date is set, Abbas said he would be willing to discuss setting up a technocrat cabinet with Hamas.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the PLO executive committee, told Haaretz that the election date would be set within about two weeks.

Saib Erekat, principal negotiator of the Palestinian Authority, said that the required bureaucratic processes meant that elections could not take place before mid-2007.

In a dramatic speech, Abbas accused Hamas of responsibility for the deteriorating security and economic situation in the PA.

"The crisis is getting worse... unless we reach a political agreement, the security situation will remain bad," he said.

Abbas added that he was authorized to fire the cabinet. "I signed the order to set up the cabinet and it is within my constitutional power to dismiss it. I could do that whenever I want," he said.

Abbas outlined the progress of his talks with Hamas on forming a unity government, and said Hamas had sabotaged the talks repeatedly, even though he had reached agreements with its leaders. He said that since the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, late last June, some 500 Palestinians had been killed, some 3,000 had been wounded and several thousand houses had been destroyed.

Abbas said mockingly that every time Hamas leaders held talks with unofficial European figures, they claimed they were negotiating with European states. He mentioned former British intelligence agent Alastair Crooke, who held ongoing contacts with Hamas. "He's out on pension already, and they say they have a new British initiative. Every time they talk to a local councillor from a little town in the U.S., they report contact with an American delegation."

He attacked Hamas for its political vision. "Does anyone really think there will be an Israeli withdrawal to the '67 lines, the evacuation of settlements and the right of return for refugees in exchange for a 15-year hudna? Does that make sense?"

Abbas said that the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, told him Hamas rejected the Arab peace initiative, although Haniyeh had not even read it.

Senior Hamas leaders said yesterday they would not agree to early parliamentary elections, which they called an attempted coup.

On Friday, after the shooting attack on his convoy in Rafah, Haniyeh said that Hamas ministers were willing to be shaheeds but not ministers.

Senior Fatah officials said that Hamas' Shura council - the supreme policy-making body - has decided to assassinate eight senior Fatah officials including Mohammed Dahlan, Samir Mashrawi and Maher Miqdad.

In response to this report, thousands of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen arrived at Dahlan's house in Gaza yesterday, threatening to strike at all Hamas leaders if any attempt was made to harm Dahlan.

Representatives of 10 Palestinian organizations, including Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal, Islamic Jihad secretary general Ramadan Shalah and even Fatah's political bureau chief Farouk Kaddoumi, met in Damascus yesterday.

They issued a joint statement blasting Abbas' declaration about pushing up the elections.

Aluf Benn adds: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's aides commented that the political crisis was an internal Palestinian matter, "and we are following the developments with interest."

The prime minister's bureau instructed government ministers not to make statements about the events in the Palestinian Authority.

Security and government sources said there is an Israeli decision in principle to help Abbas' requests on security matters, such as transferring the Bader Force, a Palestinian militia loyal to Abbas, from Jordan to the Gaza Strip. However, it was not clear when this would be done.