The political head of Hamas has described the Israeli government's plan to unilaterally set the country's borders by 2010 as a "declaration of war."
Speaking in an interview with the AFPnews agency, Mr Khaled Meshaal said "This is not a peace plan, but a war declaration, which will permit Israel to stay in the largest section of the West Bank, to maintain their wall and settlements, to refuse all concessions on Jerusalem and to reject the Palestinians' right of return."
Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday that he would dismantle most Jewish West Bank settlements on the Palestinian side of the separation wall, fortify remaining settlement blocs within Israel and set the nation's borders by 2010.
Olmert, who has threatened to assassinate the incoming Palestinian prime minister, Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel would retain control over Jerusalem, including areas of the city claimed by the Palestinians for a future capital, and build another large West Bank settlement near the city.
Support for the separation barrier, both abroad and within Israel, has been diluted as sections have been routed deep inside the West Bank, in what Palestinian and other critics have charged is a "land grab".
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat urged Israel to return to the bargaining table.
"Israel cannot determine my borders by dictating them to me. That only prolongs the conflict, rather than solving it," he said.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who favors a resumption of peace talks, remains in office and has been trying to work out a power-sharing agreement with Hamas.
In Gaza, senior Hamas figure Mahmoud Zahar rejected Olmert's plan. "We cannot recognize any sort of these borders, especially the borders created by the wall," he said.