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Tearful and fearful observers run away from Palestinian mobs, who overran their headquarters in Hebron and smashed windows (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 8, 2006 |
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| Hundreds of stone-throwing Arabs pelted the Hebron HQ of TIPH (AP) |
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Dozens of international observers abandoned this volatile West Bank city on Wednesday after irate crowds smashed windows and threw stones at their headquarters -- the most violent Palestinian protest yet against Danish cartoons depicting Islam's revered prophet.
The unrest came as the violent Islamic Jihad declared it would forge ahead with its attacks against Israel and stay out of any future government headed by Hamas. The announcement signaled that even if international pressure succeeds in persuading Hamas, which won Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, to moderate its violent ideology, other Palestinian radicals won't.
In Cairo, the Hamas political chief warned Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas not to institute changes in government without getting its approval. Palestinian and Israeli media have reported that Abbas, leader of the Fatah Party, was considering putting more of the Palestinians' powerful security apparatus under his control.
In Washington, acting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said after Hamas forms a government, the Palestinian Authority could be designated a "terrorist state." Speaking after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Livni said the international community has its "own sanctions and measures when it comes to an entity which transfers into a terror entity."
In Hebron, hundreds of rioters, most of them youths, overpowered a Palestinian police detail at the compound of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, or TIPH. The police were stationed at the building after the Danish cartoons began sparking protests across the Muslim world more than a week ago.
Some protesters threw bottles and stones at TIPH's office building and tried to set it on fire. A few forced themselves inside, where unarmed observers waved clubs in an attempt to drive them off. After reinforcements were called in, Palestinian police pushed back the crowd -- but not before protesters had smashed nearly all of the windows in the mission's three-story office building, and damaged three TIPH cars.
Eleven Danish members of TIPH left Hebron more than a week ago, but after the attack Wednesday, all 60 members of the mission's foreign staff who were inside the building decided to leave for their own safety, mission spokeswoman Gunhild Forselv said.
Departing mission staff hugged and kissed Palestinian staffers as they took leave.
"It is a very sad day, and we hope to return as soon as possible," Forselv said.
TIPH was deployed in 1994 after Baruch Goldstein, a U.S.-born Israeli settler, massacred 29 Palestinians at the city's hotly contested holy site, the traditional burial cave of the biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives. TIPH's mandate was to observe and report on tensions between Palestinians and a small group of Jewish settlers in the city, protected by the Israeli military.
Alongside the Islamic fury over the cartoons, the militant Islamic Hamas was hardening its stance toward forming a new Palestinian Cabinet, and the smaller Islamic militant group pledged more violence.
A leader of the Islamic Jihad rejected the idea of a long-term truce with Israel and said attacks would continue. The group has been responsible for all six suicide bombings since Palestinian factions agreed to a cease-fire a year ago.
Khaled Batch's remarks to reporters in Gaza City put Islamic Jihad at odds with Hamas, which has indicated it would be willing to honor an extended cease-fire if Israel would, too.
Batch also threatened revenge for three Islamic Jihad activists killed in recent days by Israeli troops.
In all, 12 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the weekend, most in response to stepped up Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. On Wednesday soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian as he approached a Gaza-Israel border crossing. A second Palestinian died of his wounds Wednesday evening, hospital officials said. Both were members of the violent Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
In talks in Cairo, Hamas began playing hardball with Abbas, warning him not to make unwanted changes.
"I take this opportunity to tell brother Abu Mazen (Abbas) not to make any new moves, changes or appointments," Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal told a news conference. "Hamas ... will consider them null and void."
The warning was a reaction to reports that Abbas would try to wrest control of security forces from a Hamas-led government. An official in Abbas' office denied the reports.
Under Palestinian law, Abbas, as president of the Palestinian Authority, is responsible for foreign intelligence and national defense, while the yet-to-be-named prime minister is responsible for internal security, police and civil defense.
Hamas was also angered by the appointment of a Fatah activist as parliament's director-general.
Abbas, who favors restarting peace talks with Israel, was elected separately last year for a four-year term, and must now work out a power-sharing arrangement with Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Another top Hamas leader said in Cairo on Wednesday that businessman Jamal al-Khudairi, an independent incoming legislator backed by Hamas, would be named Palestinian prime minister. But Mashaal claimed Hamas had not decided, and al-Khudairi told the AP he had not been approached and preferred not to comment.
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