PA Minister Resigns Amid Violence
By Tzippe Barrow
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
May 14, 2007
CBNNews.com - GAZA STRIP - A weekend of escalating gunfights, executions, and kidnappings between the Palestinian Authority unity government's coalition partners, Fatah and Hamas, continued Monday, leaving at least seven dead and dozens more wounded.
Following the latest wave of violence, PA Prime Minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh accepted the resignation of PA Interior Minister Hani al-Kawasmeh.
Kawasmeh staved off his resignation for two weeks at Haniyeh's behest, but with no opportunity to implement his security measures, there was little point to remain in his position.
His resignation is viewed as further deterioration of the power-sharing arrangement between the two factions and a potential prelude to the collapse of the PA unity government if the escalating violence isn't stopped.
Following a day of mafia-style executions and kidnappings throughout the Gaza Strip on Sunday, a group of Egyptian mediators managed a late-night ceasefire between Fatah and Hamas, but despite the agreement, the fighting continued Monday.
Media sources concur that the latest round of violence is the worst since February, when the two factions hammered out plans to form a coalition government at the Saudi-sponsored meeting in Mecca.
On Sunday, senior editor Suleiman al-Ishi and reporter Muhammad Abdo, employees of a Hamas-affiliated daily, Falasteen, were pulled from a taxi at a Fatah roadblock west of Gaza City and summarily executed on the spot.
Earlier Sunday, in the northern Gaza Strip, unidentified men shot and killed Baha Abu Jarad, a senior commander of the Fatah-affiliated al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. A bodyguard in Jarad's pickup truck was also gunned down in the attack.
According to Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh, Jarad was on a hit list for last year's assassination of senior Hamas member Majed Abu Darabiyeh, shot dead in front of his family. Jarad was also on Israel's list of most wanted terrorists.
Later at Jarad's funeral procession, Hamas gunmen opened fire with automatic rifles, wounding three children.
Sources: The Jerusalem Post, YNet
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