Jerusalem: With the bloody power-struggle between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions intensifying, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday swore in an emergency Cabinet, hours after outlawing the armed groups linked to Hamas which grabbed Gaza.
Amid a deepening political crisis, the 12 members took oath in a hurried ceremony while the new Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a respected economist, said that Gaza will be on the top of his government's agenda.
Hamas captured the whole of Gaza Strip's security installations in a five-day pitched battle with forces loyal to Abbas.
"We are going to work with clean hands, systematically," Fayyad said. "You are in our hearts, and the top of our agenda. The dark images, the shameful things that are alien to our traditions... are not going to stop us," he said.
It is "time to work together for Palestine," he asserted. Fayyad said the new government would work to end the chaos and provide security for the Palestinians.
In Gaza, the Prime Minister of the dissolved Palestinian unity government, Ismail Haniyeh, called the new government illegal and insisted he would remain in power. "The steps adopted by President Mahmoud Abbas have no basis in law," he said.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan termed the new government was "illegitimate and illegal" "We will not recognise it. We will not work with it."
Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud issued a decree outlawing the armed groups of Hamas and said its members would be prosecuted.
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