Haneya hopes Fatah new leadership committed to Palestinians' rights

GAZA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Deposed Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haneya Monday expressed hope that new leadership of rival Fatah movement would be clinging to Palestinian principles and rights.

Haneya told reporters in Gaza "I hope that the new leadership of Fatah movement will have leaders better clinging to the Palestinian people's legitimate rights than the current one."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas secular Fatah movement has been holding its sixth general congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem to elect a new central committee and a revolutionary council.

It is the first time that Fatah holds its congress in the Palestinian territories in 20 years. Abbas was re-elected as the chief of the group.

Meanwhile, Haneya called on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to stop what he termed as "the farce of arrests and torture" against his group's members detained by Abbas security forces in the West Bank.

"Several detained members had been killed in their prisons. Keeping torturing our people in the West Bank will deepen feuds," said Haneya, adding "How can we make dialogue and reconcile while those people are brutally killed."

Hamas had earlier announced that one of its members was killed in a West Bank jail in Nablus. Abbas security forces said the prisoner was found dead, and that initial investigation found out that he committed a suicide.