Hamas is calling for new leadership to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) dominated by its arch-rival President Mahmoud Abbas and factions loyal to him. Claiming victory in a devastating 22-day war with Israel in which 100 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli, the group is reasserting control over the enclave and resuming its political challenge to the moderate Abbas.
Several thousand Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza yesterday in support of the call to abolish the PLO, made two days ago by the group's exiled leader, Khalid Meshaal.
Meshaal advocates a new umbrella body to represent Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and in the diaspora. His proposal was echoed in similar statements to cheering crowds yesterday by a senior Hamas political leader, Khalil Al Hayya.
In the first public appearance by a prominent Gaza Hamas leader since Israel's attacked on December 27, Al Hayya said the PLO was "dead", and sent to the "morgue" by those who founded it.