Hamas: Fatah used Google Earth to pinpoint Gaza targets for IAF

Hamas on Monday accused the rival Fatah movement of running a spy ring that used Google Earth to pinpoint targets for the Israel Air Force during Israel's offensive in Gaza last month, AFP reported.

"With the help of the Google Earth program, those groups prepared maps to localize mosques, institutions, tunnels or workshops," the French news agency quoted Hamas official Abu Abdallah as saying.

The Islamist militant group has released an audio tape that it claims documents 10 Fatah security officials the coastal strip confessing to collaborating with Israel in exchange for money.

A Fatah official in Cairo for reconciliation talks with Hamas said in response that the claim was merely an attempt by the group to sabotage the Egyptian-brokered negotiations.

Hamas on Monday also accused the rival Fatah movement of arresting 80 of its members in the West Bank in a bid to sabotage Palestinian inter-factional talks due to begin this week.

The issue underscores the challenges Cairo faces in trying to end Hamas-Fatah divisions and establish a unity government with a pro-peace policy that could lead to the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.

Ehab al-Ghsain, spokesman of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza, said 80 Hamas men were detained in the West Bank, where Fatah holds sway, over the past few days.

A spokesman for West Bank security services loyal to Fatah's leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, said anyone harming Palestinian security was liable to detention and questioning.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, an Abbas confidant, said "there are no political arrests" in the West Bank, adding that individuals cleared of suspicions of security crimes could be released as dictated by law, but "not under Hamas pressure."

Abbas, Meanwhile, said Monday that Hamas should be part of a new Palestinian government and honor international commitments in the peace process.

Abbas said a new cabinet including Hamas should continue the peace process on the basis of previous agreements such as the existence of two states and no more building of settlements in Gaza.

Abbas spoke after meeting Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

Gaza will remain internationally isolated and Hamas will remain sidelined unless it allows Abbas a foothold in Gaza. Abbas has overstayed his term as president, which ended in January, and needs a partnership with Hamas to shore up his dwindling political legitimacy.

Klaus, representing the EU as president of a country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said Palestinian unity was key to any meaningful talks in the future.