Int´l donors pledge $4.5 bln for Gaza reconstruction

Hamas, not invited to the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting, has slammed taking his movement away from joining the Gaza reconstruction conference.

A Palestinian child sits by house rubbles at Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip March 2, 2009. An international donor's conference was held on Monday in Egypt in an effort to raise funds for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip battered by Israel's 22-day military attacks. (Xinhua/Mahmud Nassar)

Yehia Musa, a Gaza Hamas lawmaker, said on Monday in a statement that "Gaza reconstruction conference is a continuation of the criminal war series on Gaza. It aims at achieving the political goals that the war on Gaza failed to achieve."

Hamas routed Fatah-dominated security forces loyal to Abbas to seize the Gaza Strip in June 2007, one year after it won parliamentary elections. Abbas then sacked the Palestinian unity government led by Hamas and set up a Western-backed government in the occupied West Bank.

The schism between Hamas and Fatah has enervated efforts to strike a peace deal with Israel to establish a Palestinian statehood and poses a major obstacle to Western-funded reconstruction in the Gaza Strip following Israel's massive offensive against Hamas.