A senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader recently freed from an Israeli prison on Saturday condemned Hamas Islamists for seizing the Gaza Strip, calling for early elections to overcome the crisis.

Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, Abdel Rahim Malouhsaid said: "What Hamas has done is completely condemned and should not have happened."

Malouh said his movement was looking for serious dialogue after Hamas "reviews the mistake it made and agrees to elections and a new unity government."

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But he admitted that early elections could not be held without "minimum understanding between Hamas and Fatah and both sides' readiness to recognize the results of the polls."

Malouh, freed Friday after three-and-a-half years in prison, expressed discontent with the condition of his leftist party and the other factions, blaming the Hamas-Fatah power struggle.