GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – The Hamas-led government’s 3,000-member private militia showed no signs of withdrawing from Gaza’s streets Thursday despite a deal with the rival Fatah movement to remove it from public areas.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior ministry, Khaled Abu Hilal, claimed the force had been repositioned, but there was no change on the ground. Black-clad gunmen stood guard on street corners throughout the coastal strip, shifting positions at times but remaining in full public view.

In Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured King Abdullah ll, as he did Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a week earlier, that he would seek a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians and meet soon with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In unrelated violence, a Palestinian policeman and three militants were killed overnight by Israeli forces manning the Gaza-Israel border fence, Palestinian security and hospital officials said. Four Palestinians were wounded, including a seven-year-old child, the officials said.

Israel said soldiers, a tank and helicopters fired at three persons crawling toward the fence after dark and hit two of them.

The Hamas government had agreed to pull back its militia in an Egyptian-mediated deal with Abbas’ Fatah Wednesday aimed at halting weeks of bloody infighting.

“They are going to be in places away from the public. They are not going to be visible to people,” government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said after the meeting. The militia was to be folded into the official Palestinian police force, he said.

It was not immediately clear why the agreement had not been implemented, or if it would meet the same fate as one last month in which Hamas agreed to pull back its force, only to return it to the streets several days later.

The latest deal came amid a deeper disagreement over Abbas’s ultimatum that Hamas recognize Israel or face a referendum on the idea. Abbas has given the Islamic group until the weekend to respond.

Control of security forces has been at the center of a power struggle brewing between Abbas and Hamas since the Islamic group won parliamentary elections in January. Hamas deployed the force last month throughout Gaza, sparking violence that has claimed 16 lives.

Abbas has said the Hamas force is illegal but could be folded into existing security agencies.

The two sides’ heated dispute centers on a document calling for implicit recognition of Israel, which was formulated by politically powerful Hamas and Fatah figures imprisoned by the Jewish state.

Abbas has backed the so-called “prisoners document” as a way to end crippling economic sanctions against the Palestinians and allow him to restart peace talks with Israel. Hamas’ exiled leadership, which has the final say in the group’s policy decisions, has refused to endorse the plan.

Abbas is expected to set a date for the referendum on Saturday, aides say.

Opinion polls have shown widespread public support for the document, suggesting Hamas could be embarrassed in a referendum.

But across Gaza on Thursday, thousands vowed to boycott any plebiscite.

“We are not going to recognize Israel, and we are not going to lay down our weapons!” chanted some of the 4,000 demonstrators from Hamas, and two smaller Palestinian militant groups, who gathered at the Palestinian parliament in Gaza City.

“They want the referendum to divert our people’s attention from confronting the occupation and to divert attention from the ongoing aggression,” Hamas leader Abdel Fatah Dukhan told the crowd. “This is going to divide the Palestinian people.”

A vote would take place about 45 days after Abbas sets a date. Abbas says negotiations can continue until the vote but he has ruled out any changes to the document. Abbas said Wednesday that he would welcome international monitors of the vote.

Israel and Western donors have suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in cash transfers to the Palestinians, demanding the Hamas-led government renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Hamas has rejected the conditions, despite a cash crunch that has left it unable to pay salaries to thousands of civil servants.