Hamas says unity deal at risk if Abbas does not end sanctions

GAZA CITY: Hamas warned on Tuesday that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s delay in easing sanctions on Gaza was putting at risk a landmark unity deal signed last week.

"The continuation of the punitive measures against our people in Gaza a month after the dissolution of the administrative council spoils the general atmosphere for reconciliation," a party spokesman said in a statement to Hamas media.

Islamist group Hamas last month agreed to dissolve its administrative council, seen as a rival government in Gaza, and return civilian power in the enclave to the Palestinian Authority a decade after seizing it in a near civil war. Chief among their demands, however, was that Abbas drop a series of measures taken against Gaza.