REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GAZA - The Emir of Qatar embraced the Hamas leadership of Gaza on Tuesday with an official visit that broke the isolation of the Palestinian Islamist movement, to the dismay of Israel and rival, Western-backed Palestinian leaders.

Embarking on what was a state visit in all but name, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah crossed from Egypt at the head of a large delegation, to be greeted by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and an honour guard. Hundreds of Palestinians lined his route, waving Palestinian and Qatari flags as emir's black Mercedes limousine bumped along the rutted main highway Qatar has promised to rebuild.

"Today we declare victory over the blockade through this historic visit," Haniyeh told the Qatari monarch in a speech at the site of a new town to be built with the emirate's money. "Thank you Emir, thank you Qatar, for this noble Arab stance ... Hail to the blood of martyrs that brought us to this moment."

Israel said it was "astounding" that Qatar, a U.S.-allied Gulf state whose oil and gas permit it to punch way above its diplomatic weight, would take sides in the Palestinian dispute and endorse Hamas, branded as terrorists in the West. The emir had "thrown peace under the bus", an Israeli spokesman said.

The Gaza Strip is all but cut off from the world under a land and sea blockade by Israel and Egypt that is intended to obstruct the import of arms to Hamas. A Sunni Islamist group like several others supported by Qatar elsewhere, it has long been aided by Shi'ite Iran and its allies Syria and Hezbollah.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's arch-rival, said it hoped the Qatari visit would not hinder the rebuilding of Palestinian unity, nor endorse a separate Palestinian territory in Gaza.

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