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PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Saturday, March 18. (AP)
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Residents inspect a damaged house in the village of Yamoun on Saturday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 19, 2006 |
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Several officials in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party called on him to resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority to protest Israel's raid of a Jericho prison earlier this week, party officials said.
The raid, in which Israel seized six top terrorists, was seen as a humiliating blow to Abbas' prestige, and raised new questions in Fatah about their president's ability to govern, especially following Hamas' landslide victory in a January parliamentary election.
Meanwhile on Friday, Palestinians accused the IDF of killing a 10-year-old girl in the village of Yamoun near Jenin during a raid in search of wanted terror suspects.
The army said it was looking into the reports that policemen had killed Akbar Zayed, but confirmed that an elite Border Police unit hunting down terror suspects had opened fire at a suspicious cab that approached an area that the unit had cordoned off, Jpost reported.
Soldiers stormed Yamoun on Friday in search of Islamic Jihad terrorists who, according to intelligence, were hiding in one of the village homes. The army surrounded several homes inside the village but failed to capture the fugitives.
The call for Abbas' resignation and the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority at the Fatah Central Committee late Thursday was the first time such a demand was made.
If the Palestinian Authority is dissolved, Israel would be forced to assume responsibility for the 3 million Palestinians living there. The dissolution would also render Hamas' election victory irrelevant.
Analysts and Fatah officials said the demands - raised both in a letter to Abbas signed by five midlevel Fatah activists and at Thursday's meeting by a senior party official - are not serious at the moment.
However, the idea could gain momentum if a resumption of peace talks becomes increasingly unlikely and the economic situation deteriorates further, said Ghassan Khatib, the outgoing Palestinian planning minister.
Taysir Nasrallah, a Fatah official who signed the letter, said Israel's prison raid proved there was no need for the Palestinian Authority.
"The Palestinian Authority is a big lie," Nasrallah told The Associated Press. "Israel should pay a heavy price for occupying the Palestinian Authority."
In Thursday's meeting of Fatah's Central Committee, one of the members, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, opened the session by demanding that Abbas resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority, a participant said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the closed-door session.
The official quoted Abdel Rahim as saying that the Palestinian Authority is unable to solve Palestinian problems and that it is "time for us to leave."
During a tour of the demolished prison in Jericho a day after Israel's raid, Abbas rejected the idea that he would resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority.
Analysts and intellectuals have been calling for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority for some time.
Fatah has been increasingly frustrated with Abbas since Hamas' election victory, and the party is almost certainly not joining the Islamic group's new government.
Abbas is tentatively scheduled to meet Hamas' designated prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on Saturday.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman, said the group would be ready to present its government to Abbas on Saturday. Abbas has the power to veto Hamas' government, forcing it to return with a different program.
Since Hamas' election victory, Israel has tightened its hold on the Palestinians. Hamas has refused calls to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept Mideast peacemaking.
Israel has stopped transferring millions of dollars in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority, and has called on the international community to slap economic sanctions on a Hamas government, steps the World Bank says would devastate the already poverty-ridden Palestinian areas.
Friday, two Palestinian militants were killed and three wounded in northern Gaza when homemade rockets they were preparing to fire at Israel exploded prematurely, Palestinian security officials said.
AP contributed to this report.
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