Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas questioned yesterday whether the Palestinian Authority can continue to function with key lawmakers and ministers in Israeli jails.
He raised the possibility of dissolving the Palestinian Authority, which was created under peace deals with Israel in 1994, for the first time since taking office.
Hamas trounced Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in a January parliamentary election and took control of the Palestinian Authority in March.
"All political elites, the presidency, the factions and the government are invited to discuss the future of the Palestinian Authority following this [ Israeli] attack," Mr Haniyeh said, referring to Israel's arrest of parliament speaker Aziz Dweik of Hamas last week.
"Can the Palestinian Authority function under the occupation, kidnappings and assassination?" Mr Haniyeh asked lawmakers in the West Bank via a video-link from the Gaza Strip.
Asked later if he believed the Palestinian Authority should be dissolved, Mr Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza that Israel's goal was to make the Palestinian Authority "weak, ineffective".
"They have raised the necessity to discuss the future of the authority," he said.
Israel seized more than 20 lawmakers and eight government ministers after militants in Gaza kidnapped an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid in June.
Mr Haniyeh's suggestion drew support from some of Hamas's political rivals.
"It's our right to question the benefit of the continuation of the Palestinian Authority," said Salam Fayyad, an independent lawmaker and former finance minister.
"The continuation of the Palestinian Authority will acquit Israel from its responsibility as an occupying power."
Several top Fatah officials proposed in March that Mr Abbas resign, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest at unilateral Israeli moves.
Meanwhile yesterday, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least one missile into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip, killing two gunmen and a girl, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it targeted militants who were planning attacks.
The dead gunmen were identified as members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant coalition that has played a leading role in cross-border rocket salvoes into Israel.