Hamas is demanding the return of 640,000 euros (US$817,920) confiscated from one of its senior officials trying to smuggle it into the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered a criminal investigation after EU monitors at the Rafah border crossing discovered the money hidden in a belt worn by Sami Abu Zuhari, a Hamas spokesman, when he dropped it.
The cash was handed to Palestinian customs officers under the authority of Abbas.
About 100 armed Hamas men laid siege to the border crossing to demand the return of the money, but later withdrew.
Zuhari, who was returning from Qatar, said the cash came from donations made by Arab countries to help Palestinian prisoners after foreign aid was cut off following Hamas' election victory.
The standoff added to growing tensions in the territory after Hamas deployed its own security forces on the streets this week in defiance of Abbas. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that the move has created a "dangerous situation" that the Palestinian president must resolve.
Rice said Abbas had frequently spoken of the need for "one authority and one gun" and therefore he should not accept Hamas using 3,000 of its own armed men to police the streets.
"It's a very tense situation and one that we hope will be resolved. We obviously believe that President Abbas, who we believe has the confidence of the Palestinian people, should be able to exercise his responsibilities as president of the country," she said.
But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the force would remain.
"We do not intend to make one step backward. The force will stay. Their task is to protect internal security and if there will be a need to increase its number, we will do it," he said yesterday.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS