Government workers rush Palestinian parliament
RAMALLAH, West Bank – In the latest spasm of Palestinian chaos, angry government employees who haven’t been paid in months stormed the parliament building here Wednesday, while skirmishes between rival factions in the Gaza Strip left at least one person dead.
Nearly daily violence is part of a volatile power struggle that has been percolating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the militant Islamic Hamas movement unseated the long-entrenched Fatah party in legislative elections. It has plunged Palestinian society into financial and political disaster.
One bit of temporary relief: The Palestinians’ foreign minister returned Wednesday from a tour of Muslim nations with a reported $20 million stuffed in his suitcases.
The Hamas-led government has been desperate for cash since Western donor nations that sustained the Palestinian Authority for years froze most funding because of Hamas’ endorsement of violence and refusal to recognize Israel.
Chanting “we are hungry,” scores of protesters burst into the Palestinian parliament Wednesday as lawmakers gathered for a morning session. Pro-Fatah protesters hurled water bottles at Hamas legislators, climbed atop desks, upended files and drove the speaker of parliament, Aziz Dweik, a Hamas official, to flee under guard.
Following Wednesday’s actions, Hamas responded with its own counterdemonstration. Hundreds of people, many waving or draped in the green Hamas flag, surged through Ramallah and rallied outside the parliament and the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Sporadic fighting between Fatah and Hamas security cadres has erupted in recent weeks, with more than a dozen people killed.
Wednesday, in the Gaza town of Khan Younis, armed Hamas militants ambushed and wounded the local commander of Fatah-dominated security services loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Supporters of Rifat Kulab, the commander, shot and killed a Hamas gunman. That man’s supporters, in turn, torched Kulab’s home.
At virtually the same time, Abbas and Haniyeh were meeting in Gaza City with top security officials in an attempt to halt the deadly infighting.
The officials said later Wednesday that they had agreed to integrate a 3,000-man militia formed by the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry into the Fatah-dominated national police. That way, said Mohammed Dahlan, a top security official and Fatah member who announced the agreement, only uniformed agents belonging to a single institution would be on the streets.
“It is clear there is a chaos,” Dahlan said.