The militant Hamas group and the rival Fatah Party agreed yesterday to work to end tensions between their competing branches of the Palestinian government that exploded into violent clashes and protests throughout Palestinian towns in recent days.
But friction threatened to boil over again with neither the Hamas-controlled Cabinet nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' more moderate Fatah faction backing down from their conflicting demands in a fierce struggle for control of the security forces.
Supporters of the two sides traded gunfire and hurled stones and firebombs on Saturday, and Fatah leaders warned the violence could deteriorate into civil war.
PHOTO: EPA
In a meeting that began late on Saturday and spilled over into yesterday, Hamas and Fatah officials said they would take steps to end the fighting.
"The two movements have agreed to call on our Palestinian masses to stop all displays that might lead to tension," Fatah official Maher Mekdad said, reading a joint statement. "They agreed to work together to strengthen national unity."
But no agreement was reached on control of the security forces, participants said.
Outside the meeting, which was mediated by Egyptian security officials, thousands of Fatah supporters shouted anti-Hamas slogans.
Abbas, whose Fatah Party lost January parliamentary elections, has been trying to shore up his already considerable powers to marginalize the rival Hamas group, which calls for the destruction of Israel and is listed as a terror organization by the US and the EU.
After the Hamas Cabinet took office last month, many Western nations froze desperately needed aid to the Palestinian government, causing a financial crisis. The government is nearly three weeks late in paying last month's salaries to its 165,000 employees and Hamas officials say they do not know when they will have the needed money.
The government was further isolated after Hamas officials defended an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on April 17 that killed eight Israelis.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack completed "the transformation of the Palestinian Authority to a terrorist authority."
"The international community will now understand that we don't have a partner," he told his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, according to participants.
The weekend unrest followed Abbas' efforts to take control of all the Palestinian security forces -- including those traditionally under the Interior Ministry -- and Hamas' response that it would form its own shadow army, made up of militants and headed by a top fugitive that Israel has been hunting for years.
Abbas promptly vetoed that plan, and Hamas' political chief, Khaled Mashaal, accused him of cooperating with Israel and the US and "plotting against us."
Fatah leaders shot back that Mashaal, who spoke from his base in Syria, was trying to ignite a civil war.
Tens of thousands of Fatah loyalists on Saturday took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, demanding that Mashaal issue an apology.
More than 4,000 people -- Palestinian security officers and Fatah supporters -- marched in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, chanting anti-Mashaal slogans. Dozens of security officers and others fired weapons into the air.
Mashaal said his comments were misinterpreted.
Abbas has powers that "we highly respect and appreciate," Mashaal said on Saturday. "The remedy is through dialogue, understanding and recourse to law, not to weapons."
Clashes were ugliest in Gaza City, where Hamas and Fatah followers traded gunfire and hurled grenades and firebombs on Saturday. Fifteen people were wounded. Later, hundreds of Fatah activists marched to Gaza's parliament compound, throwing stones and shattering windows.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
RSS