Fatah says Hamas blocks lawmakers from leaving Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas security forces on Sunday prevented three Fatah lawmakers from leaving the Gaza Strip to attend their party's first congress in 20 years, Fatah officials said, denouncing the travel ban as a "provocation."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will cancel his party's gathering, scheduled to take place in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 4, if any Fatah members are prevented from attending.

Ihab al-Ghsain, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza, said: "No Fatah officials will be allowed to leave to attend the congress unless all Hamas activists detained in the West Bank are released."

Hamas and Fatah have been accusing each other of carrying out political arrests. A rift between the two groups widened in 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza after routing Fatah forces loyal to Abbas, who governs the West Bank.

Fatah lawmaker Ashraf Goma said Hamas's move was a "grave incident" and a "provocation." Other Fatah officials said the Hamas ban could stoke tensions among Palestinians.

"Lawmakers have never before been prevented from leaving Gaza since the coup," said Goma, referring to the ousting of forces loyal to Abbas.

Fatah officials also accused Hamas of detaining four other participants and banning three women Fatah members from travelling to the congress. Some 400 Fatah members in the Gaza Strip would need travel permits.

The secular Fatah movement, which dominated Palestinian politics for decades until it lost a 2006 election to Hamas, has spent some four years wrangling over convening the congress it hopes will set it on a path of reform and democratisation.

Fatah's last congress -- the fifth in the movement's 44-year history -- was held in 1989 in Tunisia. It has never been convened on Palestinian territory.

Abbas has asked Egypt and Syria to pressure Hamas to allow Fatah members to leave Gaza to attend the congress.

(Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Andrew Roche)