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(AP) Hours after cash-starved civil servants
stormed parliament, the Pale stinian
foreign minister returned Wednesday from a trip to Muslim nations
with $20 million in a suitcase, a sign of Hamas' desperation for
money in the face of a Western boycott.
Dozens of the civil servants burst into the parliament building in
the West Bank to demand their long-overdue salaries, throwing water
bottles at Hamas lawmakers and forcing the parliament speaker to
flee.
The second attack on the parliament this week, along with the
shooting death of a Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip, cast doubt on
renewed efforts by leaders of the rival Fateh and Hamas parties to
halt deadly infighting.
Tensions have been high since Hamas defeated Fateh in legislative
elections in January. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fateh, who was
elected separately last year, has been in a power struggle with the
Islamic group, and 22 people have been killed in factional fighting
in recent weeks.
Abbas has been pressuring Hamas to accept a proposal that implicitly
recognises Israel. Abbas, a moderate, has endorsed the plan as a way
to restart peace talks and lift crippling international sanctions
that have rendered the government unable to pay salaries that
sustain one-third of the Palestinian population.
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, has refused to
cave in to calls by Western donor nations to renounce violence and
recognise Israel, despite the growing hardship. Instead, it has
turned to the Muslim world for help.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, returned
to Gaza after visiting Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Pakistan,
Iran and Egypt.
Palestinian security officials said Zahar was carrying $20 million,
which was turned over to the Palestinian treasury. The officials
spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to
talk to the media.
A security official at the crossing said Zahar had six pieces of
luggage with him. It was not known which one held the currency or
what denominations it was in.
The border is staffed by members of Abbas' presidential guard, who
are observed by European monitors. The monitors stand alongside the
border guards and look at video and X-ray equipment, reporting any
suspected violations to Palestinian or Israeli authorities.
Last month, a Hamas official was caught smuggling $800,000 into
Gaza. The money was seized but later transferred to the government.
But since Zahar is a VIP, there were no restrictions on him bringing
in the cash, the officials said. Zahar returned home and did not
speak to reporters.
Hamas claims it has raised more than $60 million from Muslim and
Arab countries. But US pressure on international banks has prevented
them from transferring the money into the Palestinian territories.
Hamas' financial woes have caused widespread pain.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, dozens of government workers
burst into the parliament building and pelted Hamas lawmakers with
water bottles, tissue boxes and other small items.
We are hungry. We are hungry, the protesters screamed.
During the melee, some demonstrators climbed onto lawmakers' desks.
At one point, security guards broke up a scuffle between two female
lawmakers. No injuries were reported.
Parliament Speaker Abdul Aziz Duaik, a top Hamas official, fled the
hall under heavy guard shortly before the crowd burst in. I'm not
coming back until they leave, Duaik said as he rushed out.
Order was restored after about 45 minutes, and the parliamentary
session resumed.
Most of the demonstrators were thought to be Fateh activists. Later
Wednesday, several hundred Hamas supporters marched peacefully in
Ramallah to condemn attacks on government buildings.
We ask, whose interests are you serving through these actions,
burning down our institutions? Hamas leader Farhat Assad asked in a
speech. It is uglier than the practices of the Israeli occupation.
Earlier this week, hundreds of pro-Fateh security personnel went on
a rampage in Ramallah, shooting and burning the parliament and
Cabinet buildings in a rage against the Hamas-led government.
Abbas' power struggle with Hamas, which has spilled over into
factional fighting, has centred around control of the powerful,
Fateh-dominated security forces.
In the latest fighting on Wednesday, a Hamas man was killed in the
southern Gaza Strip shortly after Hamas fighters attacked the local
commander of a Palestinian police force. The commander was shot in
the legs.
After the Hamas fighter was killed, the group attacked the
commander's home and set it on fire. Hamas activists pulled the
commander's family out of the building before it was torched.
Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas agreed late Tuesday
to start a weeklong series of meetings aimed at ending the violence.
The two men, joined by senior security commanders, continued their
talks in Gaza City on Wednesday.
We deplore and regret these incidents, Haniyeh said.
We all are concerned and interested in stopping this deterioration.
The government is going to carry out its responsibilities along with
the security branches in order to maintain law and order.
Participants said Wednesday's talks focused on the new Hamas force.
Hamas deployed the 3,000-member force last month, setting off weeks
of bloodshed. Abbas has demanded the force be disbanded.
Haniyeh said Abbas had agreed to incorporate the force into the
regular police force in Gaza. But he declined to say when this might
take place. Hamas has twice pledged to remove the force out of
public places, but it remains in position.
The wider dialogue between Fateh and Hamas has concentrated on a
plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, in effect
recognising the Jewish state.
Abbas believes the plan gives the Palestinians a way to form a
united political front. But if the talks fail, he has scheduled a
July 26 referendum on the plan, over Hamas' objections.
Palestinian workers storm parliament
(Aljazeera + AFP)- -
Palestinian government employees ha e
stormed the parliament building in the West Bank city of Ramallah to
protest over their salaries not being paid.
The demonstrators burst into the Palestinian Legislative Council
chamber while it was in session on Wednesday, forcing speaker Aziz
al-Dwaik to stop proceedings.
Some protesters ripped up documents resting on members' benches,
while others quarrelled with elected deputies in the parliament,
which has been dominated by members of Hamas since last January's
election.
Various MPs called for calm, demanding that the protesters leave the
chamber.
Qais Abd al-Karim, a member of the council, told Aljazeera's
correspondent in Ram Allah that it was the right of the workers to
demonstrate, but criticised the protesters for turning violent.
"It is the workers' right to ask for their salaries. We know they
are facing terrible economic problems. The situation has been going
on for four months now," Abd al-Karim said.
The Palestinian MP also blamed the government for not sharing
information about its plans with the people.
"The government does not tell the employees or citizens about its
plan to face this problem. That is why I say it is the employees'
right to demonstrate."
Abd al-Karim said the legislative council would hold an emergency
meeting next Monday to discuss the issue.
The vast majority of civil servants have not been paid since
February, owing to a difficult financial situation after Western aid
cuts to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas formed a government.
Three wounded as four Qassams slam into Sderot
(Haaretz) - - Islamic Jihad fired a salvo of
Qassam rockets into the western Negev city of Sderot on Thursday
morning, wounding three people.
Two rockets slammed into an open area near the city, a third hit
near the city's entrance and the fourth crashed into the Sderot
industrial area damaging a factory.
One person was lightly wounded in the face by shrapnel when the
factory roof collapsed as a result of the rocket's impact. Two other
people suffered from shock.
Meanwhile, Hamas released an official statement denying a report in
Haaretz indicating it was adhering to a cessation of Qassam fire.
The organization added that it fired two Qassam rockets early
Wednesday morning.
The Israel Defense Forces, however, said it had information
contradicting Hamas' claims of Qassam rocket fire on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, Hamas denied it instructed its operatives
Monday night to stop the rocket fire, during a meeting between
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and top Hamas military
wing officials in Gaza.
The other Palestinian organizations continued to fire at Israel
despite Hamas' vacillations. Islamic Jihad also fired a Qassam
rocket at a strategic infrastructure facility near Ashkelon on
Wednesday, causing no casualties.
Palestinian sources told Haaretz on Wednesday that Haniyeh's meeting
with the military wing officials was convened in the wake of a
warning by Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin, who told
one of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' advisers that
Israel would target Hamas leaders if the organization were to
continue firing rockets.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz confirmed Wednesday that Israel passed
the message to senior PA officials that if the rocket fire does not
come to a halt, the IDF will take decisive action.
"I decided to stick with the policy of attacking people launching
rockets while they are trying to act and not to ratchet it up
another level, and there were many considerations involved, some of
which are considerations that cannot be presented to the public,"
Peretz told the Knesset plenum. "But we made it clear to the most
senior echelon of Hamas that we have no intention of making
restraint into a strategy."
The warning reached Haniyeh, who asked Ahmed Jabri and several other
top operatives to stop the rocket fire. Jabri, who answers directly
to Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political leader in Damascus, responded:
"I don't take orders from you. I'll consider the request."
Haniyeh said he was not ordering the military wing around, but
giving it the full picture. He left the meeting without getting a
commitment. However, it had appeared that Jabri was willing to
cooperate, having consulted with Meshal.
Senior IDF officials said Wednesday that Hamas' primary incentive in
stopping the rocket fire was the concern that Israel would "go
crazy" and react by targeting top Hamas leaders. The sources said it
appears that Hamas has decided that it has completed the current
phase of its campaign against Israel, and that the public support it
would get for continuing the rocket fire was not enough to warrant
the risk of an Israeli response.
According to the military officials, Haniyeh and his associates
thought their hold on power was being endangered. The Hamas decision
to hold its fire means, they said, that it has returned to the
temporary status quo: Both Israel and Hamas refrain from attacking
each other, while Israel continues to fight the smaller Palestinian
groups, led by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees,
which have not committed to the security lull.
Nonetheless, the officials said, it is quite possible that the
abatement will be short-lived. Another round of fighting could be
sparked by civilian casualties on either side or by infighting
between Hamas and Fatah. If that happens, Israel is likely to
respond harshly out of a concern that the relative restraint it
showed this time around has eroded the balance of deterrence.
In internal Palestinian matters, meanwhile, Abbas and Haniyeh agreed
Wednesday that the special security force recently established by
Hamas will be combined with the Palestinian police. In exchange,
Hamas will withdraw the members of the force from the streets of
Gaza to Hamas bases in Gaza City. Former Palestinian minister
Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah official who has lowered his profile
recently, also attended the Gaza meeting, marking the first time he
has participated in a meeting between Abbas and Haniyeh.
Dahlan told Haaretz on Wednesday night that the meeting provided an
opportunity to obtain a partial way out of the crisis brewing
between Fatah and Hamas.
"The question now is whether Hamas will keep its commitments to
remove the special force," said Dahlan. "In the past we have made
agreements that Hamas did not bother to honor. If that will happen
this time as well, despite the presence of Abu Mazen Abbas] at the
meeting, the crisis will only intensify."
Asked about this report, the Shin Bet security service refused to
respond.
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