Palestinians to hold local elections in July

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The Western-backed Palestinian Authority said on Monday it would hold local elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 17.

"The completion of this democratic process is one of the building blocks of the national authority's programme and the government's plan to complete the building of the institutions of a state," the government said in a statement.

The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza rejected the move, calling it an "illegal decision" made in "bad faith."

"Any elections, whether presidential or legislative or local... must come as the fruit of reconciliation and not amid the uprooting of Hamas in the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.

Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but basic goods since Hamas seized power there in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Abbas.

Since then Fatah and Hamas have been fiercely divided, with each accusing the other of persecuting its rivals in the territory where it rules.

The last municipal elections were held in 2006 and saw Hamas win a majority in several large towns in both territories. The Islamist group also won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that year.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had scheduled legislative elections for last month in accordance with the constitution.

But they have since been postponed indefinitely as Hamas refuses to allow any vote in Gaza without a unity agreement with Abbas's Fatah movement.

The two groups struggled for months to reach a unity deal under Egyptian mediation but the efforts collapsed late last year when Hamas refused to agree to a proposal that was signed by Fatah.