Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad proposes forming a unity government with Hamas, under which the resistance group would have responsibility for security in Gaza

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has proposed forming a unity government with Hamas, under which the resistance group would have responsibility for security in Gaza.
  
Speaking to Palestinian journalists late on Monday, Fayyad said the "security concept" applied by Hamas in Gaza could provide common ground. "The security concept practiced by Hamas in the Gaza Strip should be brought under an official framework because it is not different from what is practiced by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank," Fayyad said.
  
"After a national unity government is formed, it can take on the task of supervising a security agreement based on the institutions in place in the West Bank and Gaza." "The compatibility between the policy adopted by the Palestinian leadership and that applied by Hamas on the ground in Gaza... opens the way for a national unity government to immediately manage affairs of state," he added.

The tensions between the two groups boiled over in 2007, a year after Hamas won legislative elections.

Hamas was suspicious with the latest calls. "These declarations lack seriousness and credibility, they make no sense in light of the continued arrests and torture (of Hamas members) in Fatah prisons in the West Bank," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on Monday. "The only real way towards reconciliation is to stop the arrests, free the detainees and allow the movement's charities to start helping the Palestinian people again," he told AFP.

"The formation of a national unity government can only be achieved in the context of an all-encompassing national solution and not a partial one," Abu Zuhri said, referring to calls for the establishment of a coalition which would rule until parliamentary elections can be held at some point before September.