JERUSALEM, June 14 — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Palestinian unity government Thursday and declared a state of emergency as the surging Islamic forces of the rival Hamas movement nearly completed their military conquest of the Gaza Strip.

In a presidential decree, Abbas fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and suggested he would “return to the people” with new national elections in the future. His decision ends the four-month power’sharing arrangement between his Fatah movement and Hamas, the two largest Palestinian political parties. Sami Abu Zouhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said, “In practical terms these decisions are worthless.”

“Prime Minister Haniyeh remains the head of the government even if it was dissolved by the president,” Abu Zouhri told the Reuters news agency.

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