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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: April 24, 2006 |
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Violence flared in Gaza against the background of internal clashes between the new Hamas-led government and loyalists of the defeated Fatah, despite efforts to cool tempers.
In separate violence early Monday, Israeli troops shot and killed an armed Palestinian who opened fire on forces patrolling the Israel-Gaza border, the army and Palestinian officials said.
Dozens of Hamas militants rushed to the aid of a Cabinet minister after he was confronted Sunday by angry gunmen, sparking a shootout that left three people wounded.
Representatives of the two sides agreed earlier Sunday to work to end the tensions, but the pledge quickly degenerated into new violence. Thousands of Fatah activists joined anti-Hamas protests in Judea and Samaria, hours before the shootout at the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
The violence there came a day after Health Minister Bassem Naim, a top Hamas official, said he was cutting $2 million from the monthly health budget to help alleviate a government financial crisis by halting payments for patients to get treatment abroad. The state of Gaza's health care system is poor, and Palestinians routinely travel to Israel and other countries for treatment.
On Sunday, a group of men, some armed, burst into Naim's office and demanded that he authorize a trip for a relative who needed treatment abroad, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi said.
Naim's bodyguards - Hamas militants - called for backup from their colleagues, and the two groups engaged in a brief shootout that wounded three people, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.
After a 45-minute standoff, masked Hamas militants, joined by Palestinian police, retook the building, arresting three of the gunmen. Naim left surrounded by 10 Hamas militants.
The minister's reliance on Hamas gunmen - not the Fatah-dominated security services - illustrated the deep distrust between the sides.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a political moderate who was elected in separate presidential elections last year, has been trying to use his already considerable powers to marginalize Hamas, which formed a Cabinet after winning January elections.
Abbas favors peace talks with Israel, while Hamas calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. and the European Union.
After Abbas tried to take control of all Palestinian security forces, Hamas responded last week with a plan to form its own shadow army made up of militants and headed by a top terrorist Israel has been hunting for years.
Abbas promptly vetoed that plan, and Hamas' exiled political chief, Khaled Mashaal, accused him of cooperating with Israel and the U.S. and "plotting against us."
Mashaal's comments sparked angry demonstrations and exchanges of fire in Judea, Samaria and Gaza on Saturday. Mashaal said his comments were misinterpreted.
The protests continued Sunday. In the Samarian town of Jenin, more than 4,000 people marched and chanted anti-Mashaal slogans, and in Nablus, dozens of Fatah-affiliated gunmen briefly stormed the municipal building and tried to shut down the offices.
Interior Minister Said Siyam said Saturday that he would pursue his plans to create the force - despite Abbas' veto - and would meet with its designated head, fugitive Jamal Abu Samhadana, to discuss when he would take over his new duties. Samhadana is the head of the militant Popular Resistance Committees, suspected of carrying out a 2003 bombing that killed three Marine guards in a U.S. Embassy convoy in Gaza.
In an interview with the London-based Sunday Telegraph, Abu Samhadana said the force would form the "nucleus of the future Palestinian army."
"We have one enemy," Abu Samhadana said. "They are Jews ... I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people."
The Hamas-led government was further isolated after Hamas defended an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week that killed nine people.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday told his Cabinet that the attack completed "the transformation of the Palestinian Authority to a terrorist authority."
AP contributed to this report |
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