Former US President Jimmy Carter said today Washington's support for the Palestinian Fatah group and the blocking of aid to Gaza were part of a mistaken policy aimed at dividing Palestinians.
Carter, on a visit to Dublin, said the United States and Israel had done "everything they could to prevent accommodation between Hamas and Fatah".
"Lately, the United States has been giving military aid to Fatah in order to conquer Hamas in Gaza," Carter told reporters after addressing a human rights forum in Dublin.
"Fatah could not prevail because of the fervent commitment of some of the Hamas fighters and because of their discipline," he added.
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has said he still considers a 3-month-old unity coalition, in which he is prime minister, as the legitimate Palestinian government and accuses Abbas of participating in a US-led plot to overthrow him.
Fatah has rejected a Hamas overture for "dialogue" and banned all contacts with the group.
Israeli and Western officials say Israel plans to tighten a financial clampdown on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that would choke off all but humanitarian and basic supplies.
Carter, who brokered the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, said moves to give Palestinians assistance in the West Bank was an attempt to "reward them", while continuing to "punish" the 1.5 million aid-dependent Palestinians in Gaza.
"This effort to divide Palestine into two peoples now, I think it is a step in the wrong direction," Carter said.
"There is no effort being made outside to bring the two together."