Palestinian premier Ismail Haniya on Friday ruled out any of the alternatives advanced by president Mahmud Abbas for ending a political crisis other than a unity government.
"We are in favour of the setting up of a unity government based on the national reconciliation document," preached the head of the Hamas-led government in a sermon delivered in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
"If they imagine that we can belong to a government that recognises the legitimacy of the occupation and abandons the resistance, they will be waiting a long time," he added.
Abbas believes that the national reconciliation document, which was endorsed by Palestinian factions in June, amounts to implicit recognition of the Jewish state, an interpretation flatly rejected by Hamas.
Without an agreement with Hamas, Abbas has said he is willing to appoint a government of independent technocrats.
Aides have evoked more radical proposals, such as appointing an emergency government, dissolving the Hamas-dominated parliament and calling snap elections or organising a referendum on the moderate political platform.
Haniya said during his sermon that the Palestinian basic law does not give Abbas the authority to take such steps.
"All these ideas, have only one goal, to chase Hamas out of power as America wants," he charged.
Abbas said on Thursday he would take "decisive decisions" to form a new government acceptable to Western donors, who have imposed a punishing aid freeze on the Palestinian Authority ever since the Hamas-led government took power in March.