By Joel Greenberg,Chicago Tribune

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israel said Thursday it would not negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas after the militant Islamic movement won a stunning landslide victory over the ruling Fatah Party in parliamentary elections.

Official results showed that Hamas had won 76 seats in the 132-member parliament, while Fatah, the nationalist movement that has led the Palestinians for decades, won 43 seats. The 13 other seats went to smaller parties and independent candidates.

The outcome caused a political earthquake, heralding the end of a Palestinian leadership dominated by Fatah through more than 40 years of armed conflict and peacemaking and casting doubt over prospects for future peace efforts.

Tainted by corruption and torn by internal divisions, Fatah was unseated by voters fed up with spreading lawlessness, economic decline and a stalemate in efforts to negotiate an end to Israeli occupation.

“It’s a new era,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. “Yesterday the sky was blue, and today it is green,” the color of Hamas.

Across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hamas supporters poured into the streets to celebrate, raising a sea of green flags and chanting “God is great!” In Ramallah, a victory march to the parliament turned into a stone-throwing clash with Fatah supporters who tried to remove Hamas banners raised on the building.

As the largest faction in parliament, Hamas will be charged with forming the next government. Prime Minister Ahmad Qureia and his Cabinet resigned Thursday, hours before the election results were announced.

President Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected separately last year, will remain in office.

Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas candidate, said the group would seek a partnership with Fatah and other Palestinian factions and that the message was conveyed to Abbas in a phone call from Khaled Mashaal, the exiled supreme leader of Hamas, who is based in Syria.

“We are committed to the principle of political partnership and want to open a serious dialogue with Fatah and other factions to agree on a framework for joint action on political and internal issues,” Haniyeh said.

But Fatah officials rejected a coalition with Hamas.

“It is better to be in the opposition,” said Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah leader who is a security adviser to Abbas. “Let them try, and let’s see what they can do for the Palestinian people.”

Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, rejects peace talks and says it will concentrate on internal reforms to improve the lives of Palestinians. Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas candidate and spokesman, said Thursday that negotiations with Israel are “not on the agenda.”

But Abbas, who also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization, served notice that he was elected on a platform of negotiations with Israel, and that a future government would be bound by previous agreements with the Israelis and by the Middle East “road map” peace plan that envisions a Palestinian state beside Israel.

“I am committed to carrying out the program on which you elected me … a program based on the way of negotiation and peaceful resolution of the conflict with Israel,” Abbas said in a televised speech.

Abbas said he would work to “reactivate the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” an apparent suggestion that talks with the Israelis might be carried out through the PLO in order to bypass a Hamas-led government.

Israel said it would not talk with a Palestinian administration that includes Hamas.

“The state of Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian administration if its members include an armed terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel,” said a statement issued after a meeting of the security Cabinet chaired by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

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The statement demanded that Abbas disarm Hamas, a move Abbas has resisted out of concern that it could trigger civil war. Abbas has argued that by bringing Hamas into politics it can be moved away from violence, and that it no longer will have to maintain its armed wing.

However, Haniyeh has said the group will not lay down its arms.

Hamas carried out dozens of suicide bombings that killed scores of Israelis in recent years, but it has largely abided by a truce declared a year ago. Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the group would extend the truce if Israel reciprocates.

Haniyeh said the United States should accept the results of the Palestinian election. “The American administration that calls for democracy should respect democratic principles and the rules of the democratic game,” he said.

The crushing loss at the polls shocked Fatah leaders, who held emotional meetings to assess the damage and plan their next steps.

“We made a great many mistakes, and we have to get off the political map, sit down and do some soul searching,” Rajoub said.

In Ramallah’s central square, groups of sullen Fatah supporters watched as hundreds of flag-waving Hamas followers marched through the streets, clapping to the beat of a sound truck blasting campaign songs.

“The Quran is our constitution,” the marchers chanted as they headed for the parliament. When the green flags of Hamas were raised on the entrance to the building, a group of Fatah supporters tried to take them down, replacing them with a Palestinian flag.

Hamas marchers responded with a volley of stones that broke windows of the building and injured at least one of the Fatah men. Several shots were fired, and police rushed to the scene to break up the melee.

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the rightist Likud Party, painted a grim picture of the Hamas victory.

“The state of Hamastan is being created before our eyes,” he said, “a satellite of Iran in the image of the Taliban.”

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(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): MIDEAST

GRAPHICS (from KRT Graphics, 202-383-6064): 20060126 Hamas timeline, 20060126 Hamas bio, 20050126 MIDEAST election

AP-NY-01-26-06 2240EST

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