Disgruntled police break into Palestinian parliament

Disgruntled Palestinian police officers broke into the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza City on Monday, firing in the air to protest a lack of bullets and equipment after what they said was a humiliating confrontation with Hamas.

The protest came a day after the worst fighting between Hamas and police in Gaza in nearly a decade and underscored Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' difficulties in taking control of the unruly coastal strip.

About 40 police officers stormed parliament, just before legislators, upset over the growing chaos, voted to force Abbas to form a new Cabinet within two weeks. The main parliament session was being held in the West Bank, with Gaza lawmakers -- kept from the West Bank by an Israeli closure -- participating by video conference.

In Sunday's clashes, Hamas gunmen had attacked a local police station with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The deputy police chief of the Shati refugee camp was killed in the fighting, along with two civilians, and at least 50 people were wounded.

Palestinian legislators demanded that a new government be formed after a nine-member committee presented a special report on the deteriorating security situation, singling out the interior minister, Nasser Yousef. The report said the Palestinian security forces have done little to control the chaos in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza.

"I call on the Palestinian people to go out into the streets to demonstrate both against the Palestinian Authority and against the factions," said legislator Freih Abu Medein from Abbas' ruling Fatah party.

The government and Hamas each blamed the other for the Gaza clashes Sunday.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry said the fighting started with an argument between two men waiting in a long line at a cash machine outside a Gaza City bank. One of the men called in Hamas gunmen for support, police rushed to the scene and a gunfight erupted, the Interior Ministry said.

Hamas said the confrontation began when police tried to arrest Mohammed Rantisi, a Hamas activist and son of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was killed in a targeted Israeli missile strike on his car last year. Hamas claimed Mohammed Rantisi was unarmed.