Re: Imminent civil war in Palestine: Hamas defies Abbas on shadow force
There will be a civil war in Palestine unless Hamas and Fatah work together.
Rival students clash in Gaza City
** Several people have been hurt in Gaza City in clashes between rival groups of students supporting ruling Palestinian party Hamas or their opponents, Fatah. ** The two sides fought around their campuses, throwing stones and homemade explosives and exchanging gunfire.
The factions later agreed to work to reduce the tension which arose after a decision by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Abbas, who also leads Fatah, vetoed Hamas plans for a new security force.
** Deep divide **
Hamas and Fatah representatives emerged late on Saturday night from talks brokered by Egyptian diplomats in Gaza City to say they were committed to restoring calm.
They said they were ordering their followers to bring the tension to an end and that a committee would be formed to resolve any future problems.
Although the two parties say they will now put their differences aside, many people here will be sceptical, the BBC’s Alan Johnston reports.
The latest tensions showed again how deep the divide is between the factions and how suspicious they are of one another.
Hamas has just taken control of the government but the presidency is still in Fatah’s hands and the potential for serious friction in future remains great, our correspondent says.
** Plot claims **
On Thursday, new Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siyam announced the formation of a shadow security force comprising members of militant groups with militant leader Jamal Abu Samhadana as its leader.
Mr Abbas later issued a presidential decree nullifying the Hamas-led government’s proposal.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal reacted by talking of a plot against the Hamas administration.
Outraged Fatah supporters staged a number of demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank to demand an apology.
At least 15 people were wounded in the fighting in Gaza City, which involved students from two of the city’s universities.
Al-Azhar University is dominated by Fatah and the Islamic University - by Hamas.
Abbas reminds Hamas he can dissolve government
Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:47 AM ET
By Selcuk Gokoluk
ANKARA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a sharp reminder to Hamas on Monday he had the power to dissolve the new government, but said he did not want to do so and would give the group more time to embrace peacemaking.
“Hamas has to change some of its political attitudes. Let’s wait a while and see if it will change,” Abbas told Turkish CNN.
Shunned by the United States and the European Union for refusing to renounce violence and accept the pursuit of peace with Israel, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has been struggling for nearly a month to secure funds to pay overdue salaries to 165,000 government workers.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, speaking in Gaza, said funds collected by the Arab League in Cairo now totaled “maybe” $90 million and that discussions were under way to bring that money quickly into the Authority.
Fearing U.S. sanctions, many banks are refusing to handle any of the government’s funds, and it remains to be seen whether any of the promised aid will make it through.
“Hamas is still acting as if it were in opposition, not in government. It has to face realities, it has to be in contact with Israel to meet the daily needs of the Palestinian people,” Abbas said in remarks translated from English into Turkish.
“The constitution gives me the right to dismiss the government but I do not want to use this power,” said Abbas, visiting Turkey at the start of a European fundraising tour.
Mohammad Nazal, a Hamas politburo member, said Abbas wanted the Palestinian government to fail.
“This is an attempt to blackmail Hamas to change its political position. Instead of calming media attacks, he is bizarrely talking about failure of a government that barely took office,” Nazal, who lives in exile in Damascus, told Reuters.
Abbas, leader of the more moderate faction Fatah, last week vetoed Hamas’s nomination of a Gaza Strip militant to a senior security post, prompting violent street confrontations and heightening fears of a possible Palestinian civil war.
PRESIDENTIAL GUARD
A top aide said Abbas was seeking funds from the European Union to expand his own presidential guard by up to 40 percent.
The expansion would be part of a broader aid package, estimated by some Western diplomats at nearly $55 million, aimed at keeping Abbas’s office running and shoring up the institutions he still oversees, from border security to Palestinian television.
Haniyeh urged members of his Hamas movement and Abbas’s Fatah to show restraint following two days of clashes that wounded about 30 people.
“I appeal to all our people to return to calm and order,” Haniyeh said after visiting the Health Ministry building in Gaza where Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashed on Sunday.
Sporadic protests have broken out over unpaid March salaries, but some officials said it could get much worse.
The Arab League said over the weekend it intended to transfer $50 million on Wednesday to the Palestinian Authority, enough to pay about 40 percent of last month’s overdue salaries.
On top of the $50 million donated by Qatar, Saudi Arabia has sent $20 million to aid the Palestinians to accounts set up in Egypt by the Arab League.
It was not immediately clear what Haniyeh’s $90 million figure included.
Even if the Palestinian Authority received all of the funds collected so far by the Arab League, it would still be well short of the nearly $120 million needed to pay back salaries for the month of March alone.
Another $120 million would be needed for April salaries, which come due next week.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Cynthia Johnston and Adam Entous in Jerusalem)
**Three die in Hamas-Fatah gun battle in Gaza…**GAZA, May 8 (Reuters) At least three Palestinians were killed on Monday in gun battles in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah, the most serious internal violence in the territory since Hamas came to power. Medical officials in the southern town of Khan Younis identified the dead as two Fatah members of the Palestinian security services and a Hamas gunman and said 10 other participants in the fighting were wounded. A Hamas spokesman, said the clashes began after Fatah security men “kidnapped” three members of the Hamas’s Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades. Gunmen from the brigades then surrounded the area where their comrades were being held and captured four Fatah men, he said. A Hamas gunman was shot dead in an initial round of fighting and two Fatah men were killed in a second clash, the spokesman added. There was no immediate comment from Fatah.( First Posted @ 09:35 PST Updated @ 09:57 PST)
Total palestinian children dead = 722
Total Isreali children dead = 122
fucck, these terrorists are really stupid. They have been **actively **trying to kill israeli children and ended up killing only 122 of them, while the super-trained, IDF with superior surgical weapons accidentally killed more palestinian children even though they didnt mean to.
Collateral damage is such a beyotch!!!\
Re: Imminent civil war in Palestine: Hamas defies Abbas on shadow force
Beggers can’t be chosers.
** Israeli fuel firm halts Palestinian gas supply **
Supplies cut due to growing debts; move may deepen humanitarian crisis
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:09 a.m. ET May 10, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Israeli company that provides fuel to the Palestinian areas is cutting off supplies due to growing debts, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Wednesday, a move that could deepen a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The head of the Palestinian petrol commission, Mujahid Salame, said he expected gasoline supplies to run out by Thursday. “If this happens, there will be a humanitarian crisis,” he said.
He said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in touch with American and European diplomats in hopes of pressuring Israel to ensure the flow of fuel to the Palestinian areas.
Dor Energy has been the sole provider of gasoline to the Palestinian areas since interim peace agreements were signed in the mid-1990s. Company officials declined comment.
Salame said the Palestinians owe about $26 million to Dor, but he accused the company of taking a political decision aimed at punishing the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Israel has stopped about $55 million in monthly tax transfers to the Palestinians, demanding that the militant Islamic group renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. The tax money has been placed in escrow.
Last month, Israel used this money to pay Palestinian debts, including a bill to Dor, which has cut off supplies to the Palestinians at least twice before this year.
But Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel would “absolutely not” bail out the Palestinians this time.
Israeli economic pressure, along with a cutoff in aid by Western donors, has left the Hamas government unable to pay its bills and left thousands of civil servants without salaries.
Western powers agreed Tuesday to restore humanitarian aid to the Palestinian areas, as long as the money doesn’t reach Hamas. But it remained unclear when the money will begin flowing.