Hamas loyalists demonstrated in a Gaza City on Friday and warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the first explicit demand for overthrow Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Hamas leaders on Friday for the first time since the Islamist group ousted his forces and took control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody conflict in June.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said officials from the Islamist group Hamas were holding meetings with Israel to end the blockade of Gaza and ease access for goods and people.

The leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has urged Arab nations not to attend an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference that will address a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli troops killed two members of the Islamist group Hamas in a night clash in the north of the Gaza Strip, local radio said Monday. The two fighters killed belonged to Hamas' military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Hamas has banned public prayer in the Gaza Strip, accusing rival faction Fatah of using Friday prayers as a "pretext for anarchy and sedition," Arab news media report Wednesday.

Capturing Israeli soldiers is the only way to free jailed Palestinians, a Gaza-based leader of the Islamist group Hamas said Wednesday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday dialogue with Hamas is only possible if the radical Islamist group gives up control over the Gaza Strip.

Russia does not plan to meet with the leadership of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas any time soon, First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov said Tuesday.